Mischief and Mayhem
by Crystal RoseWing
Summary: Dagny Stark was raised as Tony's beloved daughter, little does she know that it's a lie to cover up that she is really the child of Loki. But what happens when Loki comes to claim what was stolen from him? And just who is this new enemy that takes delight in taunting the Avengers as well as Loki? Enemies may need to become allies to deal with this new threat. -mpreg-
1. Prologue

**Alright, this will be my first Avengers fic… and my first fic to ever involve Mpreg. Admittedly I usually avoid this particular topic since it's very hard to do properly and under most circumstances I am not very fond of it. But lately I have read a few extremely well done ones for Thor as well as the Avengers. Which has led me to start writing this little story… I do hope to keep everyone in character; and please know that constructive criticism is always welcome… But please, no flames due to subject matter…**

**While there will be some pairings in this fic but they aren't going to be really focused on. The pairings will be Clint x Natasha, Thor x Jane and Tony x Pepper. That's pretty much it.**

**Oh yeah, this first chapter is the only chapter that's going to actually have Mpreg and it's also going to be extremely dark and graphic, just as a little heads up…**

**Full Summary: **_**Dagny Stark was raised as Tony's beloved daughter. But unknown to her is that it's a lie to cover up that she is really the child of Loki. What happens when Loki comes to claim what was stolen from him? And just who is this new enemy that takes delight in taunting the Avengers as well as Loki? Enemies may need to become allies to deal with this new threat.**_

**I own nothing accept for my OC's…**

_**Prologue**_

_Odin was not pleased when he heard the news…_

Actually saying not pleased was an understatement; to put it more properly he was absolutely furious! It had been a little over seventeen months since Thor had returned with the Tesseract and his adoptive little brother Loki. While Odin had been pleased with the return of the Tesseract… he was far from pleased with the return of Loki. This fact became incredibly apparent at his trial when Odin had openly vented his anger at him for everything that he had done. His rage was frightening and when he had decided on a punishment for his adopted son, he showed him no mercy. None at all…

First and foremost Odin disowned Loki, never again would he call him his son… This came as little surprise to anyone. **(Except for Thor of course, who did not foresee just how severe his brother's punishment would truly be…)** Next, he was to be locked deep in the castles dungeons. _"He has shown himself to be a monster, so let him be caged like one!"_ Were Odin's exact words to be precise. But his final ruling was by far the cruelest, most horrible fate he could have bestowed upon the trickster...

_He condemned Loki to having his mouth sewn shut…_

Thor had pleaded with Odin to reconsider, saying that the punishment was far too cruel. While his beloved wife Frigga had been completely enraged! To her no matter what crimes Loki had committed, he was still her son and she loved him. In fact since Loki's sentencing she had grown distant from her husband; his decree having created a deep rift between them. This had only fueled Odin's anger and resentment towards the boy he had once called his son.

But now a new situation had risen that required Odin's immediate attention, as Loki had made an escape attempt about an hour ago. Thor had not been amongst those whom had apprehended him… in fact he was off somewhere in Midgard. Apparently his presence was needed for something that had to do with the Avengers or whatever. He wasn't expected to be back for quite some time… But Odin wasn't thinking about that now. Right now he was heading towards Loki's old rooms, where Frigga had demanded that the guards who had captured Loki were to take him instead of returning him to his cell. This thought caused the anger in Odin's heart to surge as he stormed through the doorway and set his sights on the scene that was unfolding before him.

_Perhaps the politest way to put it was the god of Mischief looked like absolute hell. _

Loki was lying in his old bed wearing nothing but a simple loose fitting tunic that barely fit around his bony frame, as he had lost so much weight that he appeared to be little more than skin and bones at this point. His normally pale skin looked if possible even paler, while he had dark circles beneath his bloodshot eyes… and then there was the factor of his lips having been sewn closed with thick, hideous black threads rendering him mute. But the worst part was the most disturbingly obvious fact of all; Loki's belly was grotesquely swollen and distended… a sign of only one thing…

"So they weren't mistaken." Odin hissed wrathfully. "The _'Mother of Monsters'_ is incubating yet another abomination!" His attention was then drawn over to Frigga, who was at Loki's side dampening a cloth that she was using to wipe his brow which was covered with sweat. "How long until the beast is born?"

"I'm not sure…" Frigga muttered not even so much as turning to look at her angry husband. "Loki has never been in such poor condition before. He barely had enough strength to change his body so that the child could be born. I expect that this will take a long time." Upon hearing his Mothers words, Loki just closed his eyes and tried to remain as calm as possible, but the rising waves of his emotions still threatened to come to the surface… emotions of fear and anger.

Anger… anger directed at Thor for bringing him back to Asgard to face the punishment that he knew awaited him. To face this torture! Anger at Odin… the man he had once looked up to, the man he had once desperately sought approval from, the man he had once called father. Only now any love he had once felt for him had rotted away leaving behind nothing accept bitterness and hate. But most of all he felt raging anger at himself… how could he have let this happen? He had been so sure, so completely sure that he would be victorious and that Midgard would be his. So sure and yet so blind; he had moved to quickly and chose to conceive his heir early. An heir… a child… a child that would be at his side and would inherit a grand kingdom… a child that he could love with all of his heart and who would love him back…

_So he would not be as bitterly alone as he knew he truly was…_

But now… now there was also fear. Loki knew all too well the fates that had befallen his other children… simply for the crime of being his… and now here he was again in the agony of labor, only this time the Allfather wasn't even pretending to hide his contempt for him or his anger at this situation. His heart welled with growing fear and dread as to what Odin was going to do with this child. A fear that was completely warranted.

But upon hearing that it would be some time before Loki's newest offspring would be born Odin growled angrily. His one good eye boring into the figure that had once been his adopted son, a boy he once claimed to have loved… although he never did, not even for a moment. No matter how much at times he had tried to convince himself that he did. And he began to wait…

_Several long hours passed… _

In spite of the help Loki was receiving from Frigga he had made very little progress. Even though he was putting all of whatever strength he still had into pushing, he felt as if he was getting nowhere. Something that was more than a little worrying… as he hadn't had this much trouble with a birth since he bore Sleipnir. Out of the four children he had birthed, it was the eight-legged foal that had given him the most trouble by far. With this one now becoming a close second… Of course the fact that he had his mouth sewn closed and that left him unable to draw in the deep gasps of air may have had something to do with it. But even considering that, Loki was starting to believe that something was going wrong. And while he couldn't say anything verbally, the look in his eyes said everything that needed to be said to his mother.

"Something's wrong." Frigga said urgently. "We need to send for a healer!"

"Don't bother…" Odin snarled having grown tired of waiting for another hideous monster to claw its way out of Loki. "I know exactly how to hurry this along!" Before either Frigga or Loki could figure out what he meant by that Odin grabbed Loki's arm and suddenly began to electrocute him!

It was like being thrown straight into the fires of the black pit. If it was possible Loki would have been screaming at the top of his lungs! As though the labor wasn't causing him enough pain, now every muscle in his body spasmed in anguish as volt after volt tore through his broken and weakened body. Frigga screamed and tried to remove Odin's hold on Loki, but without success. Odin stopped just as a sudden and immense gush of blood poured from between Loki's legs. The electric shock seemed to have ripped something inside of Loki and now his blood was rushing out… along with his child. If it had managed to survive the electricity… Involuntarily Loki found himself pushing once again, spilling more and more blood onto the sheets until he finally felt the head of his baby beginning to crown.

That was when Odin reached into Loki and pulled the emerging baby the rest of the way out… revealing that it was still alive, as well as mostly encased in its amniotic sac and also tangled up in its frayed umbilical cord. Probably the reasons why Loki had been having such difficulties. But even with the child having been ripped out the rest of the way, the pain was so horrible and his blood loss so bad that Loki essentially went into a state of shock. His eyes rolled into his head and his body started to tremble involuntarily… at this Frigga began to use her own magic to heal her son as best she could. While she was no healer, her abilities were still sufficient enough to ease his pain and stop some of the bleeding… all the while Odin inspected the creature that he had just pulled from Loki. A look of pure disgust clearly written on his face.

"This is perhaps the most hideous creature you have ever brought forth… and hopefully your last." Odin said darkly as the small, mewling creature tried to free itself from the sac and cord it was tangled in. At first glance it resembled a wolf pup, like Fenrir. But looking closer that was clearly not the case. Its little grey colored body was covered in scales, although atop its head were faint dustings of black fur and there also looked to be some sort of dark green patches on the sides of its throat. Its tail was oddly long and reptilian, but at the tip was a sharp barb similar to that of a scorpion. Then finally, running along its backbone were several bony outcroppings that would undoubtedly grow to be lethal spikes…

_It was also male…_

"Grotesque…" Odin muttered as he pulled the pup up by the scruff of its neck causing it to squeak and whimper in pain. After a few moments Loki regained himself enough to realize that Odin was holding his newborn son in such a way that was hurting him! He began trying desperately to move, to reach his child… he began to cry out, emitting as much sound as his sewn mouth would allow.

"Give Loki his son!" Frigga commanded.

"You do not command me!" Odin spat at his wife with such rage that for a moment Frigga actually feared that her husband might strike her. That was when pup opened its mouth and unexpectedly bit Odin's hand. Revealing that it had been born with a pair of sharp, syringe-like fangs, similar to those of a cobra. Odin hissed and tore his hand free of its teeth. "This… is filth! This monster is just like the rest of Loki's brood and thus will be treated as such! I will personally see to that!" And with those final words, Odin, still holding the squirming pup proceeded to storm out of the room.

_But not before bumping into Thor in the chambers entranceway…_

"Father? What has happened?" Thor questioned but Odin ignored him and walked past him. Although Thor barely caught a glimpse of whatever it was that his father held in his hand. Confused, Thor turned his attention to what was taking place within the room. As soon as he had returned from Midgard he'd heard of Loki's escape attempt and had raced to find him... it went without saying that he didn't expect what he had found. His eyes widened with a mix of both shock and horror when he saw the massive amount of blood… and how his little brother was sobbing borderline hysterically into their mother who was trying in vain to calm him.

"Loki?!" Thor said urgently rushing over to his brother's side. And as Frigga began to tell Thor about everything that had just happened, Loki didn't even attempt to acknowledge what was going on. He was broken; it felt as though his heart had been torn out of his body. This was just another nail in the coffin of his rotten, miserable, lonely life. But just then Loki suddenly convulsed as another wave of blinding pain overtook him. His sudden movement caught both Thor and Frigga by surprise. "Loki?! What is it? What is happening to you brother?!" Thor asked as his brother suddenly spasmed again. Watching Loki writhing in such agony and unable to say what it was that ailed him or even scream filled Thor with a rage like no other. This wasn't justice, it was torture plain and simple… and to steal away Loki's child? While Thor was indeed aware of what had happened with Loki's other offspring, he'd always believed that his father had done what he did because there hadn't been any other choice… that his actions had been out of love. He didn't believe that anymore. But the worst part about that was that it meant that all those times Loki had needed him more than anything else… and he had defended their father.

_Well no more…_

Thor stood and ran out of the room at a breakneck speed, successfully adding to the overall confusion of the situation. But he returned a few moments later, a dagger in hand… it went without saying what its purpose was for. And within a few seconds Thor had cut all the threads that held Loki's mouth closed, immediately the god of mischief opened his mouth and began to scream as more waves of pain began wash over him.

"A… another…" Loki rasped, his vocal cords were weak and his voice seemed to crack from lack of use. "t-there's… another!" Well, while Thor was still trying to process exactly what it was that Loki was talking about, there was a sudden wet sloshing sound as Loki suddenly began pushing and the blood began rushing… and in less than two minutes something slid out of him and onto the blood-soaked bed sheets.

…_twins…_

_Loki had been carrying twins…_

Thor had to fight the urge to vomit as he slowly reached down and carefully picked up… whatever it was that Loki had just given birth to. It didn't look like any kind of animal or child; in fact Thor thought it might have been an egg of some sorts. As it was shaped like an egg and was pitch black in color with its umbilical cord somehow going into it… Thor held it awkwardly not really sure what to do with it. But just as Frigga had finished healing Loki for the second time, his younger brother shifted weakly and set his large emerald eyes upon Thor…

_The look in his eyes was that of pure desperation…_

So very slowly and carefully Thor handed… whatever it was… to Loki. "I am not sure… what it is." Thor mumbled as Loki looked the strange object over once before the ghost of a smile appeared on his mutilated face.

"You didn't look close enough." Loki whispered, his voice was still very raspy. But he traced his finger around the area where the umbilical cord went inside and it was when his fingers ghosted over the upper part of the object that Loki found what he was seemingly looking for. Thor watched in surprise as three small claws slowly wrapped around Loki's finger. And very carefully, Loki pulled the claws away revealing the strange object for what it truly was…

_It was a small baby girl, swaddled in a large pair of feathery black wings…_

She was beautiful. Her skin as pale as porcelain and her eyes were like looking into a sea of brilliant green. Her wings were very large when compared to the rest of her, easily twice the size of her body and equipped with three sharp claw-like fingers at the top of the wing. While the wings were indeed covered in midnight black feathers all of the feathers were slicked down due to being soaked with blood and amniotic fluid. Hence why she had been mistaken for an egg at first. But right when it looked like all the surprises were over with, a little tail wagged from beneath her small body.

"Hello… my little beauty." Loki said softly as fresh tears began to form in his eyes and cascade down his cheeks like waterfalls. The newborn cooed innocently as she fidgeted her wings and stretched her small pudgy arms, reaching up for her mother. And Loki, as tired and as broken as he was just held his newborn daughter in his arms. Cradling her close to his heart. "My poor monstrous daughter. You now bear a terrible curse, just for having been born from my womb. I dread the thought of what will become of you… and what has already become of your brother."

"Nothing shall happen to her Loki! I will protect her, you have my word." Thor tried to reassure Loki, but the other just shook his head and then glared at Thor.

"Let us not pretend that you would ever stand against the Allfather for the sake of a monster. Especially one of mine." He snapped wrathfully, but was still careful not to shout to loud as to upset the baby he still held.

"You can look at the child in your arms and call it a monster?" Thor asked; visibly hurt by the words that came from his brothers silver tongue.

"I speak the truth! She _**is**_ a monster; do you not see her wings and tail?! What word would you call such a creature?" Loki hissed but stopped as the baby started to fuss; after soothing her to being quiet once again his tears started flowing once again. He didn't even try to hide them; he was too weak to care. "I truly am the Mother of Monsters... but I love them all; no matter what forms they take. I carried and birthed them… they are my children always. She is my daughter; the creature Odin just stole is my son. And when he returns I will lose her as well."

_A cold bitter silence fell over the room like a death shroud..._

"There is another way." Frigga said breaking the silence and drawing the attention of both her sons back to her, as she had been so quiet that Thor and Loki had almost forgotten that she was still in the room. She walked forward, her eyes transfixed upon the newborn in Loki's arms. She smiled sadly and ran her hand through the dusting of black hair on the baby's head." Odin does not know she lives. I could cast a spell upon her, conceal her wings and tail and suppress her magic. Then Thor could take her elsewhere." This suggestion caused Loki's eyes to widen and he pulled his child closer. But after a minute of thinking about it he realized that there was no other way… it was the only chance this child would have.

"So be it." He said in a voice barely louder than a whisper. But he then looked down at his daughter and felt his heart start to bleed. "I have no choice but to entrust your fate to Thor. But before I do, you shall receive the only gift that I can give you. My child, your name shall be Dagny." He held her close for just a moment longer, gently rocking her. He then reluctantly handed his daughter over to his mother. Frigga had to fight back her own tears as the second Dagny left Loki's arms she began to cry. She quickly cast a sleeping spell over her, silencing her cries and then she placed her hand on the center of the child's back and a soft warm white light came from her palm and went into Dagny causing her wings and tail then began to recede back into her body. It was only when they had completely disappeared, was it revealed that the spell left little Dagny with strange black marks upon her shoulders and back. On her shoulders there appeared to be small spirals with three feather-like designs attached to them and there was also a straight line going from in between her shoulders to the base of her spine.

"It is done." Frigga whispered as she quickly gathered some blankets and furs to wrap the baby in since she no longer had her wings to keep her warm. "You must make haste; go quickly before Odin returns." Thor nodded and carefully took the bundle from his mother's arms. He paused before looking at Loki who didn't even acknowledge his gaze. He just seemed to stare blankly down at his bloody hands. After a few long awkward moments of silence Thor turned to leave.

"Thor…" Loki said before his brother departed, successfully catching Thor off guard. "I know that my tongue is not going to be free for long… so I wish to say something to you before my lips are sewn closed once more." He said weakly and then he looked up at his older brother, only the emotions reflected in his eyes weren't sorrow or gratitude. His eyes were filled with hatred, rage and an all-consuming madness. It burned behind his eyes a thousand times more powerful than Thor had ever seen it. "My newborn son may be lost to me, but Dagny isn't. Someday I will escape from this hell… and if I have to take apart the nine realms piece by piece, I will find my daughter and take her back… **Mark… my… words…**"

_Thor just stared at him…_

_And without so much as saying a word, he turned around and left… _

_And that was the last time Thor saw his little brother for twenty-three years…_

**To avoid any confusion as to why Loki's pregnancy lasted seventeen months; I'd imagine that any pregnancy he's ever experienced doesn't have an exact gestation time. It would probably vary depending on what kind of creature he was having. An example being that Sleipnir probably had a longer incubation time than Jorgumandr**…** That coupled with the fact that he was carrying a pair of twins this time and was probably holding back giving birth for as long as possible due to him being locked up and everything… well, that was my logic anyway.**

**Also, the name Dagny means **_**'New Day'**_** in Norse. **

**Alright that's it; please remember to Read and Review!**


	2. The Story of Dagny Stark

**Chapter 1**

**The Story of Dagny Stark**

_Her name became Dagny Stark._

_Although the story of how that came to be was interesting to say the least._

Thor had returned to Midgard as fast as he could, having been careful to conceal Dagny throughout the entire trip. Thankfully the sleep spell that his mother placed on her kept her quiet until they'd made it to the mortal realm. However it was winter on Earth and the second that Thor arrived on the mortal plane and the first breeze of cold air reached Dagny, she woke up… and that was when the crying and wailing began…

_And just wouldn't stop…_

But it was admittedly amusing; the looks on the Avengers' faces when Thor showed up at Stark Tower **(As it was their unofficial meeting place outside of S.H.I.E.L.D Headquarters)** with a wailing infant and a pretty desperate look written on his face. Of course everyone was surprised, but what was far more surprising was how Natasha, the feared Black Widow, immediately rose to her feet and started scolding Thor for holding the baby wrong. It would seem that the ghost of her deeply buried maternal instincts had temporarily taken hold. In a matter of seconds she'd actually swiped Dagny from him entirely and began trying to calm the distraught infant herself… with very little success. This left everyone else in the room demanding an explanation from Thor as to what the hell he was doing with a baby in the first place.

"She is Loki's." He said with a deep sadness clearly present in his voice. "He birthed her mere hours ago."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, _**he**_ birthed her?! As in gave birth?" Tony questioned suddenly feeling the urge to forget a glass and just start chugging scotch straight from the bottle. "I thought Loki was a guy? How'd he manage that one?"

"My brother is… different." Thor tried to find the right words to properly describe Loki's unique physiology. "He is a Jotun, their genders are less defined."

"So the old legends are true then. About the eight-legged horse and so on?" Barton inquired and Thor nodded. "So why did you bring it here?"

"It's a _'her'_ Barton, not an _'it'_…" Natasha corrected hotly; still trying in vain to calm the crying baby.

"I had no choice. If my father was to learn of her existence she would be condemned in spite of having done nothing wrong! I fear that his hatred for Loki has clouded his mind... but I promised to protect his child and I will do so… but what she needs most is a home. I had hoped that you all would help me find her one." Thor explained.

"Oh sure we'll just go find a cardboard box, wrap the kid in a fuzzy blanket and try to pass her off as a kitten!" Tony grumbled, successfully getting wicked looks from everyone else in the room.

"At least try to be serious for a minute Tony." Steve said flatly.

"I am being serious; need I remind you all that this is **Loki's **kid? Once she learns how to walk and talk she'll get a bad attitude, start throwing magic around and want to take over the world! Quite frankly I don't know how you guys could want to try and pawn that off on some unsuspecting parents."

"Nobody is born evil Tony." Natasha growled.

"And she cannot use her magic." Thor added. "My mother has placed a spell upon her to suppress her powers." He wisely decided to not mention Dagny's wings and tail… as that might have been a bit much for his friends to comprehend, especially at this moment.

"Fury isn't going to like this..." Clint commented. "In fact some of the S.H.I.E.L.D scientists might just want to lock the kid locked up in a cage and study her like an animal."

"I will not allow that to happen!" Thor roared at the top of his lungs. "Should these scientists even attempt such a thing I will smite them where they stand!"

_Extremely bad move…_

_Thor's booming voice just made Dagny's wailing cries get even louder... _

"I don't think I can take much more of the crying." Bruce muttered as he rubbed his temples, starting to feel like his head was being put in a vice. Naturally all present individuals became extremely nervous at these words, as adding the Hulk into this sure as hell wouldn't help this situation.

"Oh, hell no! I just finished rearranging the furniture and it took me forever to get it exactly how I want it!" Tony declared suddenly walking over to Natasha and plucking the baby from her hands. "Sorry Thor, but you're going to have to take the little Spawn of Evil out of here before Banner Hulks out!"

"Tony!" Natasha said as she stared wide eyed at him. "How-"

"I'm sorry, but do you want to have to deal with-"

"Stark!" Steve snapped successfully stopping Tony's little rant. He too was extremely shocked at what he was hearing.

"What?"

…_silence…_

"She stopped crying the second that you picked her up." Natasha explained. Although she couldn't for the life of her understand why. Tony wasn't even holding her right; in fact he was holding her at arm's length.

"Dagny seems to like you Stark." Thor commented with dull humor as his niece started cooing innocently and started reaching out for Tony to pull her closer… which he obviously had no intention of doing.

"Yeah… well since she's quieted down, who's going to take her?" Tony said and began desperately trying to pawn her off to one of the other people in the room. Of course no one stepped in to help; although Natasha did direct him on how to properly hold the little child to keep her from crying anymore. Still the look of awkwardness written on Starks face was completely priceless… and Hawkeye suddenly saw an opportunity that was too good to pass by.

"Since Tony seems to have the magic touch, how about the rest of us go and talk to Fury about the situation and start working on finding a home for the kid?" He said successfully getting a murderous glare from Tony. "I mean the sooner we get this done the better."

"I am unsure about leaving my niece with Stark." Thor muttered.

"Stark isn't sure about it either!" Tony whined. "Seriously you guys can't just leave me here with Loki's kid! I'm irresponsible remember?!"

"Tony all you have to do is watch her for a little while. Maybe a day or two. Once we get everything all straightened out with Fury we'll come get her. Simple as that." Steve explained in a reassuring way, even though it only accomplished the exact opposite. Freaking Tony out all the more.

"Come on guys, can't one of you stay here and help me?" The answer he received was a sudden and unified shout of **NO**… Although Thor did add: _'If you hurt a single hair on Dagny's head I shall break you in half!' _Not exactly words of reassurance.

_And thus Tony Stark was left alone with a newborn baby._

"Jarvis!"

"Already downloading various childcare books sir." The A.I responded immediately.

"Yeah that's good and all but could you contact Pepper?" Tony said hoping to god that his dear assistant might have a better idea what the hell he was supposed to do with a baby for the next few days.

"I would sir, but Miss Potts is away for the next week attending her family reunion." Jarvis stated, causing Tony's shoulders to slump as he just remembered how Pepper had made a point of telling him every day for the past month that she would be unreachable while she was away at this particular get-together.

"Oh… right… I forgot about that." He muttered as he looked down at the small baby in his arms that was looking up at him with large, innocent emerald eyes. "You, young lady are going to cause me mayhem I just know it."

_Dagny just smiled up at him…_

…_**two weeks…**_

It took two weeks for S.H.I.E.L.D to work out an acceptable plan of just what to do with Dagny. Understandably Fury had been enraged at the prospect of Loki's hellish offspring being taken to earth for safe keeping. Although he had no choice but to assist Thor in finding a place for the child when the god threatened never to aid the Avengers again should they refuse to help him and Fury was unwilling to call his bluff. At first Natasha had been the one to call Tony on a daily basis in order to check in on how the baby was and also keep him updated on their progress. However the most info that she really managed to get from Tony during this time was that while Dagny was fine and all he was at his wits end. In fact on the fourth day he was even crying while on the phone with her. Thankfully though he seemed to have calmed down by the fifth day… But by the eighth day he'd stopped answering the phone altogether.

So now the Avengers were currently storming their way up to Tony's penthouse with an angry Thor leading the way. Due to Tony's track record they were each convinced that something had gone horribly, terribly wrong and now he was just trying to avoid confronting them about whatever it was that had happened. So when the elevator doors opened everyone was expecting the worst… but no one was quite prepared for the sight before them.

_It looked as though Tony had bought out an entire baby store... _

"What… the… hell?" Clint pretty much summed up the thoughts of everyone present. To make the sight even more confusing Tony suddenly walked out of one of the rooms, whistling an oddly happy little tune and Dagny was nowhere in sight.

"Stark!" Thor snapped, successfully getting the billionaire's attention. Of course Thor's angry bellow didn't seem to dampen Tony's good mood in the slightest. "Where is my niece?! Is she alright?! I demand to see her now!"

"Nice to see you to Thor." Tony replied sarcastically, although he didn't lose the chipper tone in his voice. "Don't worry your pretty blonde head about Dagny. She's fine; in fact I just put her down for her nap. So keep your voice down, if she wakes up early she'll get cranky." It was one of those awkward moments where everyone was just staring at Tony like he had just grown another head.

"Who are you and what have you done with the real Tony Stark?" Steve asked giving Tony a wary glance. Of course Stark didn't care and just shrugged.

"I'll admit it was total hell at first. Dagny wants to be held constantly, she has a habit of waking me up in the middle of the night by crying her little heart out and I thought that I was going to die the first time I had to change her diaper." He then chuckled slightly. "But then everything just kinda fell into place. I've gotta say, while she may be the spawn of Loki she has to be the cutest kid to ever live."

"Um… Tony, you do remember that we're looking for a new home for her right?" Banner asked raising an eyebrow at the billionaire. Interestingly enough being reminded of this did finally seem to kill Tony's spirits a little bit.

"Oh yeah… how has that been going?" he asked nonchalantly whilst he walked over to the nearby mini-bar and began pouring himself a drink.

"Actually we've got everything set up." Clint answered. "Turns out that there is a pair of S.H.I.E.L.D agents who have been looking into adopting. It was a stroke of luck, they'll take care of Dagny and S.H.I.E.L.D. will still be able to carefully monitor her. Just in case..."

"And you approve of this?" Tony asked Thor. His voice and attitude were darkening; clearly he was less pleased with these arrangements than everybody else was.

"They seemed like kind people. It was only as much as I could hope for." Thor muttered, although judging by his tone, he too was somewhat unsure about this little plan.

"What's done is done Stark. Everything is ready, so we're just going to take Dagny and go." Natasha said proceeding towards the room that she assumed to be Dagny's. However she found herself impeded when Tony suddenly got in between her and the door. Within Stark's mind he had taken everything into careful consideration for a fraction of a second before giving his well thought out reply to this plan.

"Nope."

"What do you mean nope?" Natasha replied in an irritated manner as this was starting to get a little ridiculous.

"I mean you can't have her." Tony said seriously; all traces of his good mood disappearing from his features. He then turned his attention towards Thor. "If you agree to this what kind of life will your niece live? She'll be nothing but a carefully watched animal and there is no guarantee that the couple you picked out will even treat her well."

"And what are you purposing Stark? That we let _**you**_ raise her?!" Clint joked darkly.

"As a matter of fact Robin Hood… yes."

_Long… _

_Awkward… _

_Silence…_

"Are you insane Tony? This is a child, not a puppy!" Steve exclaimed as he and everyone else proceeded to be absolutely blown away by what the billionaire playboy had just offered. Especially since it was a commonly held belief that Tony Stark was incapable of keeping a plastic plant alive, let alone a child.

"I'm completely aware of what she is Captain Obvious. But the fact is I have made up my mind and no one is taking her anywhere." Tony said with the most serious tone in his voice that any of his fellow Avengers had ever heard.

"Tony I don't think you've really thought this through." Banner commented. But Stark just growled in mounting irritation as he was definitely **not** liking what he was hearing.

"No Banner I have actually given this quite a bit of thought; in fact I've given it a shit load of thought!" He snapped, angrily glaring at his so-called friends. "It occurred to me that Dagny will one way or another end up living her life in a test-tube if S.H.I.E.L.D has any say at all in where she ends up. And you know what? That bugs me... no kid deserves that."

"You have grown… fond of Dagny?" Thor inquired, eyeing Tony a bit warily.

"So what if I have? Would that be such a bad thing?" he asked with a slight shrug. But then he paused and a mischievous, if not somewhat crazy smile began to make its way across his face. "Thor, you want to protect Dagny right? Wouldn't it be so much more convenient if she lived with me rather than some other random people? You could visit her often you know, be a proper uncle to her and whatnot." The Thunder god didn't respond but judging by the look in his eyes he was clearly considering Tony's offer, which infuriated Natasha.

"Tony do you have any idea of what raising a child actually entails?" She snapped. "It means putting someone else's needs above your own; not just from time to time but **ALL** the time. It means no more crazy, fun bachelor lifestyle. It means PTA meetings, soccer games and school plays… and if you are unwilling to fully commit yourself to this, the only thing you'll succeed in is making her life sad and miserable! So I'll only ask you one time… are you sure that you want to do this?"

"Yes." His answer was quick but surprisingly forceful. "And this may surprise you but I already thought of all that." So an uncomfortable silence once again filled the room. Barton sighed in aggravation and rubbed his temple, feeling a very bad headache beginning to form.

"Fine. We'll go tell Fury... you can be sure that he is going to blow his top when he hears this one." He grunted darkly. And with that the rest of Tony's houseguests left, although Natasha and Thor did give him doubt filled looks as they left. Clint however paused when he was in the doorway and looked back at Tony with irritation and skepticism clearly shining in his eyes.

"I hope you know what you're doing Stark." he mumbled as he proceeded to follow the others out of the apartment. Once he was gone, Tony let out a loud sigh of relief… just as the sounds of Dagny's cries began to resound throughout the apartment.

"So do I Legolas… so do I…"

* * *

Admittedly Tony might not have been as completely sure of himself as he had proclaimed. This became sadly… and humorously… apparent as time steadily marched on and his little adopted daughter steadily grew. It should be noted that Tony had taken her back to live in his main home in Malibu rather than live permanantly in New York... Although Tony didn't exactly know a lot about children, he'd started to assume that Dagny might have developed a bit faster than most other children her age.

One prime example of this was the time that Dagny took her first steps. It was easily one of the happiest days in Tony's life… but over time this day lost some of its luster when the little girl quickly mastered walking and graduated to running… away from him.

While it was meant to be playful on her part, it made Tony's life considerably more difficult having to chase a little toddler around the house. A _fast_ toddler at that… a fast toddler who _hated_ bath time.

_It was at some point that Tony realized that raising a child was like owning a blender without a top…_

But still, for as many times as she would run away from him there was double the amount of times she'd be running towards him. Whether it was because she was scared of something or maybe because he had just returned from a quick run to Randy's Doughnuts, either way she would always run up to him and hug him tightly or perhaps she just wanted to be picked up and held.

_And these were some moments that Tony cherished and loved the most..._

* * *

Not all of the experiences Tony had with Dagny as she grew up were precious; some were simply enlightening. As before having a child living with him, he had severely underestimated the damage that a small box of crayons could do…

When Dagny was about three years old Tony had no choice but to leave her alone in the house for about twenty minutes. Usually Pepper would have been there watching her for him... but he figured that everything would be ok since he would only be gone for a short time and Dagny was completely mesmerized by drawing with the crayons. **(While Pepper had originally believed that Tony had finally lost his mind when he had taken in Dagny, it had taken her an extremely short amount of time to fall in love with the little girl and she now served as Dagny's mother figure.)** Of course when Tony returned minutes later he discovered just how wrong he was.

Dagny had drawn all over the walls, adorning them with little brightly colored pictures of flowers, animals, and even a few pictures of Tony's Iron Man suit. But behold her drawings didn't just cover the walls; she'd drawn on the windows and even on the brand new schematics for several improvements he'd planned to make for his suit.

"Crayons of Mass Destruction…" He whispered looking at the technicolored horror that was seemingly everywhere. "Forget nukes, our government should regulate how many crayons a child can play with at a time!"

_That was the day that Dagny got the lecture of not to draw on the walls, windows or important blueprints… _

_It was also the day that Tony learned that it took five coats of paint to cover up the drawing of one unicorn…_

* * *

_Dagny hated shoes…_

It was a strange and aggravating trait. The little girl would put up a hell of a fuss when it came to footwear and she preferred to go around barefoot all the time. In fact by the time that Dagny was four years old she only owned sandals. Pepper in her infinite wisdom had suggested the sandals after the seventh time of Tony going out to the park with Dagny only to find that she had buried her sneakers somewhere, never to be seen again. Yep, she hated shoes with a passion… although admittedly she did tolerate the sandals a whole lot better than the sneakers.

It was nothing short of a victory in Starks eyes, making it through an entire trip to the park without Dagny trying to dispose of her new sandals in some way-shape-or-form. He was so pleased by this that he decided to have a small drink… ah alcohol, since he'd officially taken in Dagny he had cut way back on the booze. He didn't even think twice about it as he was most certainly _**not**_ going to follow his father's example on that one… he had to many vivid and painful memories of his father being in a foul mood and reeking of expensive scotch… still this one small victory drink seemed appropriate at the time.

He'd just poured the brandy into the glass when Pepper came into the room after tucking Dagny into bed. He'd expressed his delight and asked if she would like to join him with a victory drink. She didn't… in fact she merely pointed out that he was calling keeping a four year old from throwing away her shoes a victory.

…_mood killer…_

* * *

Pepper wasn't quite sure who Dagny's first day of school was more traumatic for… Dagny or Tony.

"Maybe I should just homeschool her." Tony muttered. "I mean, come on! Who wouldn't want to be homeschooled with someone like me as the teacher? It would be a blast! Both figurative and literally speaking."

"But I want to go to school Daddy." Dagny had said innocently, her young voice chimed as clearly as a silver bell… ironic considering Loki was well known for his silver tongue.

"And it's good for her to be around other kids her age." Pepper injected as she handed Dagny her bright green backpack. "I'll bet that you want to make some friends, don't you sweetheart?"

"I… guess so." Dagny muttered although judging by her tone she clearly wasn't too eager when it came to making friends. Her odd reaction however merely made Tony assume that he was right and that she should be homeschooled. It was only because Dagny kept saying how much she wanted to go to school that Tony reluctantly surrendered to the idea.

So he drove her to Kindergarten and walked her into the building. Only once Dagny was safely inside the classroom and he was back in his sports car did he have a so called _'Mommy Moment'_ and thus had a bit of an emotional drive around the city. And what was meant by an emotional drive; it was where he completely ignored all the speed limits, thought that staying off the sidewalks was nothing more than a suggestion and nearly mowed down a couple dozen innocent civilians who had the unfortunate luck of trying to cross the wrong street at the wrong time…

_All the while poor Pepper was holding on for dear life in the passenger seat… _

_Making a mental note that she would drop Dagny off at school from that day onward…_

_It was just safer that way…_

* * *

Tony was a little surprised when Dagny didn't make any friends at Kindergarten. But only a little… in truth he was sadly expecting something like this to happen. Dagny was much more developed mentally than the other children and thus was somewhat alienated from them. She was also much more interested in doing her own thing rather than playing with the others…

Not that her lack of friends her own age meant that she was lonely! No, if there was one thing Dagny was not it was lonely. After all she had a doting father, Pepper as a loving mother figure, and Thor had lived up to his promise and had taken on the role of an uncle… one of many... In fact all of the Avengers were a part of Dagny's life as was Tony's best friend Rhodey. It made for one big, crazy family.

The only one who was a little cold towards Dagny at first was Barton; of course the fact that she was Loki's daughter and he had been manipulated by the trickster was the initial reason for this. But over time, even he fell under Dagny's spell…

_In spite of Clint growing to like Dagny it was still a bad choice of words on Tony's part… _

* * *

An interesting coincidence was how Dagny made her own life-long nemesis on the same day that Tony was dealing with his. It was one day when the two of them were at a little pastry shop, picking up a special cake to surprise Pepper for her birthday. Dagny had been completely enamored with looking at all the different kinds of cakes and sweets. Over the course of her brief life she had developed quite a sweet tooth… just like Tony. But just as the two were getting the cake, as well as a few other delicious pastries that looked too good to resist, a certain annoying individual just couldn't resist having a chat with Tony Stark.

"So you also frequent this particular establishment Stark?" The voice of Tony's long time business rival and full time pain in the ass, Justin Hammer cut through the air like a rusty spoon.

"Justin? I thought you were still in prison." Tony replied dully as Dagny took her usual place at his side and began looking up at the strange man who was talking to her father. Her presence was immediately noticed by Hammer and he did raise an eyebrow at her, a little confused as to why Tony Stark would have a little girl with him.

"That's what lawyers are for Stark and you know me, I have to have the best ones there are." He said smugly as Dagny then proceeded to then capture his full attention. "Now what are you doing with this kid here? Babysitting?"

"This is my daughter Dagny." Tony answered just as something unexpected… and a little bit frightening… caught his eye. "Same question to you Hammer… who's this?" He was no doubt referring to the small boy that currently stood next to Justin… a boy that looked to be the very spitting image of Hammer. While he had to be roughly the same age as Dagny it was all too clear that he had the same nerdy-thin body, coco brown hair and oddly dull blue eyes that were magnified behind a large pair of glasses.

"Oh, this here is my **son** Stark." Hammer declared proudly and was careful to emphasize that he had a son… like in some strange way that beat out having a daughter. Whatever… Tony didn't even want to try and understand Hammers logic. "My son, Justin Jr."

"Justin Jr? His name is J.J Hammer? You do know that with a name like that he's going to be spending his school years stuffed in his locker." Tony asked in partial disbelief. He knew that Justin Hammer was completely in love with himself above anybody else. But a name like Justin Jr. for another human being just seemed wrong. "Of course like father like son… and if you'll excuse me I have a Chocolate-Mousse Cake that is due at a surprise party in an hour." At that both he and Dagny went to leave, but Hammer being Hammer he nonchalantly tripped Tony, causing him to drop the bag of extra confections while the box that contained the decadent chocolaty-pastry went flying… only to splat against the wall.

"Hey! That wasn't nice!" Dagny yelled angrily up at Justin who had burst out laughing hysterically along with J.J at Tony's misfortune. Her bright green eyes filled with anger and she made a fist and with all of her might-

_Punched Justin Hammer right where the sun don't shine…_

It was downright hilarious to watch the glee instantaneously disappear from Hammers face and for severe pain take its place as he dropped to his knees and clutched that very tender part of his anatomy. Shocked by the attack on his father, J.J's eyes filled with rage and he leapt at Dagny and the two children began viciously fighting in the middle of the bakery. The fight only stopped when Tony managed to pull Dagny off of J.J… and one thing was instantly clear; Dagny was the undoubted winner of the small fight as J.J clearly had broken glasses, a black eye and a small trickle of blood coming out of his nose while Dagny looked virtually unharmed.

"Alright that's enough!" The owner of the shop said coming out from behind the counter with a box that contained another Chocolate-Mousse Cake. "I saw the whole thing, so here is another cake Mr. Stark. On the house."

"Uh, thanks…" Tony said as he looked at the new pastry somewhat confused. "But usually I have to order these, like a week in advance. How come you just so happen to have one that you can give to me now?"

"Because this is the one that Mr. Hammer ordered." The shopkeeper replied darkly as a look of horror managed to work its way into Justin's still-pained face. "He started the fight, so thus he forfeits the cake… That's just karma."

"What goes around comes around doesn't it?" Stark chuckled, accepting the replacement pastry and picking up the other bag of thankfully undamaged treats. "Bye Hammer, hope not to see you at the next PTA meeting!" He said merrily as he and Dagny left the shop. Although once outside he looked down at his little scrapper curiously. "Honey, where'd you learn to fight like that?"

"From Aunt Natasha. She demonstrated on Uncle Barton a few times when he made her mad."

…_Tony was going to have a word with Natasha about teaching his daughter to be an assassin without his permission…_

* * *

Things took an interesting turn for everyone when Natasha became pregnant. Naturally Clint was the father… and naturally when the announcement was made his eyes went wide and he fell over in a very unmanly faint. Tony did take a bit of… no, he took a ton of pleasure in Barton's full blown baby panic.

"Having never actually dealt with a pregnant person before, you are on your own with that one. But if you need parenting tips, feel free to ask! I mean, I did earn a _'World's Greatest Dad'_ mug for my birthday last month." Tony preened happily as he took a sip of coffee from the said mug.

_Oh if looks could kill Stark would be dead with a hundred arrows in his torso and Hawkeye's bow rammed up his ass…_

But eventually the baby panic subsided and within nine months little Dmitri Avery Romanoff was born. **(Since Clint and Natasha weren't married Dmitri took his mother's last name rather than his fathers.)** Everyone thought that he was adorable, especially Dagny who was seven years old when Dmitri was born. In fact after the first time she was allowed to hold the baby, **(Which was several months after he was actually born, the reason for this being that Natasha didn't want anybody else holding her son at first… hell she barely let Clint hold him until her hormones cooled down...)** Dagny turned to the adults with a happy smile on her face and declared that she would watch out for Dmitri like he was her little brother. A sweet sentiment if not a strange one.

Of course, it was right after that Dagny turned to Tony and asked if she could please have a real little brother or sister at some point in the future.

_Clint Barton, Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner then proceeded to simultaneously fall over while cracking up at the look written on Starks face…_

* * *

_And then it finally happened… _

_Tony proposed to Pepper…_

It was late one night after Dagny had long been tucked into bed and Pepper had dragged Tony into the living room to help her with putting a family photo album together. This was very important to her, organizing the numerous pictures that they had with Dagny into some sort of order. It was right as Tony was whining about a paper-cut and Pepper was just turning a page in the book to put some more photos into their proper places when she saw it… a beautiful diamond engagement ring.

"Tony… is this-?" She began.

"Long overdue? Oh definitely… but hopefully the message is still clear." Tony interrupted with that devilish smile on his face. Pepper had kissed him and hugged him saying yes about a hundred times. Of course that was when they both heard little girly giggles coming from directly behind the two of them. They had turned around only to see little ten year old Dagny, clad in her blue and green pajamas and holding her favorite toy, a little blue stuffed dragon with large black buttons for eyes, and looking at them with pure joy in her eyes.

"What are you doing out of bed at this hour young lady?" Tony asked with fake agitation, as he was far too happy at the moment to be really angry. Something that Dagny was fully aware of as her little smile widened and she ran over and sat in between the two of them.

"So are you and Pepper gonna get married now?"

"Yes we are sweetie." Pepper said slowly stroking Dagny's hair as the little girl laid against her and looked up at her with those big green eyes.

"Tomorrow?"

"Um, no we need time to get everything arranged. You know, invite family and friends." Pepper explained as Dagny looked over to her father and gave him a very questioning look.

"But after that… will I eventually get a little brother or sister?" Pepper couldn't help but laugh at this question and she shook her head.

"You have a one track mind Dagny. Just like your father only cuter."

_Dagny and Tony just smiled matching innocent, childish grins…_

* * *

_Then there was one night that Dagny scared Tony…_

It was on the eve of her eleventh birthday and the party had been a blast. Not only for Dagny, but for everyone who had attended. Since Dagny didn't have any real friends at school there weren't any other children there… well except for Dmitri, but he was much younger than Dagny and ended up falling asleep halfway through the get-together. Still it was a party to remember, although Thor did get in trouble from Jane for nearly eating all of the Birthday cake… but now the festivities were over and almost everyone was sound asleep in the guest rooms. Everyone accept Dagny that is…

She was sitting quietly on the roof, looking up at the full moon. She had Thor's gift, a beautiful hand-woven blanket from Asgard, draped over her shoulders. This wasn't uncommon, her sitting on the roof. She'd been doing it habitually ever since she was five years old when she had somehow found a way out onto the roof. The first time she'd nearly given Pepper a heart attack and was initially was told never to do it again… but she just couldn't help it. She was drawn out there, just like she was drawn out onto the roof of Stark tower in New York every time she went there with her father and Pepper. She had always liked high places, sometimes she would imagine that she had wings and could fly free on the wind. She had dreams like that from time to time… and they were her favorites.

"You know it's late Dagny. You should be in bed." The voice of Tony said as he joined Dagny out on the roof. After giving up trying to stop her from getting up there he'd just made a few adjustments to make it safer. In fact he'd actually grown fond of sitting with Dagny outside on the roof.

"I can't sleep." Dagny said softly as she looked at her father, the moon reflecting in her eyes in such a way that it almost seemed to make them glow.

"No surprise there with all the sweets you ate tonight." He chuckled rubbing his daughters head. "Still… what's up kiddo, did you have a good birthday?"

"I always have good birthdays! I love seeing everyone and being with family. And it's always fun watching Uncle Thor eat all the Pop-Tarts, muffins and ice cream in the house." She giggled. But then she resumed looking up at the moon with the smile still shining on her face. Tony looked at her a little strangely, unsure what was going through Dagny's mind.

"So, what are you thinking about?"

"Mommy."

It was like someone had just swung a sledgehammer straight into his gut. Oh, of all things why this topic?! Back when Tony had first taken in Dagny and Fury had been informed, naturally he wasn't happy about it at all… but he would agree to it on one major condition, Dagny would never know that she was adopted. Never know whose child she really was... S.H.I.E.L.D had been far beyond thorough; in fact they had gone so far as to create fake photographs, birth records and even made an empty grave for a woman who never existed. The story was that this woman, Beth, had died giving birth to Dagny and there were other tidbits of nonsense that gave Tony a foul taste in his mouth every time Dagny asked him a question about her _real_ mother. What was so gut-wrenching about this was that Dagny actually felt she had a connection to this fake woman. As never once had she called Pepper mother… not that there was any doubt that she loved Pepper deeply and like a mother… but she just couldn't call her what she wasn't.

"You're… thinking about your… mother?" Tony echoed as he was starting to feel sick to his stomach.

"Kind of…" Dagny said but she suddenly seemed to become a little nervous about something and she looked up at Tony. "Daddy, I think… I think mommy tries to talk to me sometimes."

_Tony nearly fell off the roof…_

"What do you mean?" he asked urgently, a terrible fear and dread starting to well inside of his chest causing his heart to hammer erratically. Dagny didn't answer at first, she just returned her gaze to the moon.

"It's like…" she started to explain, but was clearly having a little difficulty finding the right words to describe the situation. "It's like there is a string in the back of my mind. Most of the time it's loose and I forget it's there. But… once in a while it's like it's getting pulled and I get this feeling in my heart."

"What do you feel?" Tony urged her to continue.

"Love." She whispered. "I feel love. A lot of it… and I just know that it's from her." Silence fell over the rooftop as Tony was completely speechless and not in the funny way... No… there was nothing even remotely funny about this.

"It doesn't happen often," Dagny continued. "Maybe… twice a year? Three times at most. But it always happens on my birthday without fail. I think mommy is sending me love from heaven."

"Does your… mommy ever say anything to you?" Tony managed to ask. Dagny paused and thought about this for a moment before shaking her head.

"No. I've never heard her voice." She said sadly. "But… sometimes I think that I hear her humming."

"Dagny, why did you never mention any of this before?"

"Because… I was really scared that you might think I was crazy." At that Tony pulled his daughter in close for a tight hug.

"I would never think that you were crazy." Tony said reassuringly to his precious daughter. "I believe every word of what you've told me Dagny and... and I'm sure that wherever your mother is he- I mean she, loves you very much... and she is sending you those feelings of love. But Dagny I think that we should keep this our little secret." At this Dagny just nodded, clearly she didn't need any convincing when it came to keeping this a secret. She then yawned loudly and snuggled against her father's chest.

"I'm sleepy now." She whispered as she began to doze off against Tony's chest. With a sigh Stark picked up Dagny and brought her inside and tucked her into bed. Careful to drape her new blanket over her and put her favorite stuffed dragon in her arms before he left the room. Going to find a bottle of desperately needed aspirin.

_Tony had always thought that something bad might happen because he hid the truth from Dagny…_

_He didn't think that anymore…_

_Now he __**knew**__ it… _

* * *

Imagine Tony's shock at being called down to Dagny's school because she had been fighting. It blew his mind mostly because Dagny had never been in any kind of trouble before. When he entered the principal's office, there was Dagny sitting slumped in a chair with an angry expression on her face… as well as a nasty looking black eye.

"What the hell is going on here?" Tony asked looking from Dagny to the principal; a short, squat, balding man with a thick brown mustache, brown eyes, and a grey colored suit. "Dagny what happened? Are you all right?"

"Mr. Stark," The principal began as he adjusted himself in his seat and slowly folded his hands. His eyes fixating on Tony and Dagny. "I called you hear because Dagny was involved in a fight today. A big fight… along with several other students. Thankfully no one was injured aside from some bumps and bruises."

"So where are they? The other kids that were involved in this little spat?"

"Well after hearing the story from the others, as well as some other kids that were watching it became obvious that it was Dagny who started the fight." The principal continued.

"It wasn't my fault!" Dagny shouted angrily. "No one else was doing anything!"

"Doing anything about what?" Tony asked finding that he was getting increasingly agitated that Dagny seemed to have been singled out to receive most of the blame for this fight.

"Julie Smith." She continued hotly. "She gets picked on all the time and nobody does anything about it! J.J and his friends pick on a lot of kids and they never get in trouble! I had to do something!"

"You could have gone to a teacher." The principal continued.

"I did! But afterwards they just start doing it all over again! Ralphie Wortts and Donny Zeppo are the biggest kids in school and they do anything that J.J says! And today one of them stuck a wad of gum in Julie's hair and made her cry! What was I supposed to do? Just sit back like everyone else and not do anything? So I made them stop!"

_Tony had never felt more proud of Dagny than he did at that moment…_

"Your heart may have been in the right place Miss Stark, but that is still no excuse for fighting. Normally causing a fight is punishable by suspension, but in light of the situation if you write apology notes to Ralphie, Donny and Justin Jr. I will-"

"I'm not apologizing for something I'm not sorry for." Dagny interrupted. Successfully stunning the principal into silence. He turned and looked to Tony, obviously seeking a little help with what was going on. But judging by the angry glare that the billionaire was giving him there was no chance of that happening.

"Then you will be suspended for the rest of the week. Are you sure that you want… to… Mr. Stark what are you doing?" The principal asked when he noticed Tony fiddling with a gadget he had in his pocket.

"Oh this? I'm just making sure that this entire conversation was recorded so I can play it at the next PTA meeting. I just can't wait to see the reactions of everyone else when they learn that a little girl with the guts to stand up to some bullies gets suspended while the bullies don't even get in trouble." Tony said smugly, unable to restrain a chuckle as a look of utter shock and anger began to fill the principals' face.

"Y-you can't do that!" He stuttered.

"Watch me." Tony said as he turned his attention back to Dagny. "Come on sweetheart, you're suspended after all… and I don't think you want to watch a grown man cry, so let's get going." He said as Dagny stood and the two of them left the office just as the principal started to protest what Stark was planning to do... once outside the building Dagny looked up at her father questioningly.

"You're really not mad at me for fighting?"

"Nope. I'd have been mad if you had picked a fight for no reason, but what you did today was stand up for someone who needed your help and I'm very proud of you for that." Tony said with a smile. "At this rate, someday you'll be an Avenger. Just like me."

"But dad, I don't want to be an Avenger." She retorted quickly and this surprised the hell out of Tony.

"Well then what do you want to be?"

"An artist..." Dagny declared happily. "I want to be an artist."

* * *

"I see so much of my brother in her…" Thor said one day when he came to check on how Dagny was doing. She was currently sitting on the roof, quietly reading a book. Tony sighed as he grabbed a box of Pop-Tarts and tossed them over to the god.

"I don't think so man, she might look a lot like him but other than that there isn't a trace of him anywhere... there is no insanity, no arrogance and absolutely no evil." he replied shortly, having taken offence to Thor's words.

"He was not always like that Stark. There was a time when he was different… he was once kind and gentle. He loved to read and create harmless mischief." Thor muttered as he started devouring the Pop-Tarts. "He wasn't always heartless."

"Who is heartless?" Dagny questioned having been so quiet when she entered the room that neither Thor nor Tony had noticed her.

"Oh you know, just some random guy from Thor's home world of Asgard." Tony said quickly, managing to deter Dagny away from any more information. Thankfully it didn't seem that she was overly interested in what the adults were talking about anyway so she just shrugged and went over to the refrigerator and pulled out an orange soda.

"Those who are heartless once had hearts that cared too much." She said as she popped the lid and took a sip. "I'm gonna go with Pepper to the library, it was nice seeing you again Uncle Thor!" And with that she left the kitchen, leaving her father and uncle in silence.

"She has… wisdom far beyond her years." Thor whispered as he put down the half-finished box of Pop-Tarts, no longer hungry anymore.

"Yep, that's my little fortune cookie." Tony chuckled.

* * *

_Dagny finally got her wish when she was thirteen years old._

She literally jumped for joy when Pepper announced she was pregnant… while Tony had copied Clint's example and promptly fainted. Still from that day forward there was so much hustle and bustle going on in the household that seven and a half months literally seemed to fly by. That's right only seven and a half… it was a complete surprise when in the middle of the night Pepper roused Tony from his near coma like sleep and told him that her water had just broke.

_The house had instantly filled with high-pitched girly shrieks…_

_All which came from Tony…_

At one point Dagny had to slap her father and tell him to get a hold of himself. Thankfully that caused him to calm down enough for them to all drive to the hospital… well, in truth it was Dagny who actually drove Tony's sports car full speed to the hospital while Tony was in the back getting his arm crushed by Pepper. At this point no one's brain logically reasoned out that a thirteen year old was flying down the busy streets of Malibu towards a hospital with her parents in the backseat.

Due to some miracle, they actually made it to the hospital in one piece… and after twenty-two hours of labor, Tony's first biological child was born. A little girl that they named Saffron.

_Saffron Emily Stark._

* * *

A few months after Saffron was born Pepper expressed a desire to go someplace rural and quiet for a while and thankfully Tony knew just the place… It was one of the many beautiful homes that the Stark family owned; only this one was located deep in the mountains of Vermont. According to the story that Tony told, it was bought by his father as an anniversary present for his mother. Unfortunately they only went up to this house about three or four times and the only thing his parents did during their entire stay there was argue. Thus Tony hadn't returned to this house in many years… hell, he'd forgotten he owned it until Pepper mentioned wanting to get away.

But the place was breathtaking… It was a large stone manor that looked nothing short of hauntingly beautiful. Not only was the house itself incredibly grand, but the land that surrounded it was gorgeous as well. While the house was shrouded in trees, just a little ways away was a hill that was covered in wild flowers. From the top of that hill, one could look down onto a huge lake that ran off into a river that cut through the mountainous countryside. As it turned out, Stark actually owned the miles of land that surrounded this house. Which meant that all of the surrounding forests and fields were private.

_Dagny fell in love with this place…_

Tony watched how her eyes lit up when they first arrived; Pepper had been blown away by this place to but it seemed to have a much more instantaneous and dramatic effect on Dagny. In fact right after they had all settled into the house and Saffron had been fed and was put down for her nap, Dagny asked if it was alright if she could explore the surrounding area. Tony said it was fine, but no sooner did the words leave his mouth did Dagny kick off her sandals **(As she never did get over her disliking of shoes…)** and run as fast as she could into the woods.

Hours passed and Tony and Pepper started to worry about her, worrying if she'd fallen and hurt herself or maybe even had a run in with some wild animals. Either way Tony decided that he was gonna go looking for her… and he successfully got turned around several times before finally admitting he was lost. Tony had lived in the city for nearly all of his life and never got lost… but he learned that night that a forest was an entirely different story altogether. It was right when Tony was really getting frustrated about not having the suit with him when…

"Dad? What are you doing down there?" He heard Dagny's voice but he couldn't see her.

_Until he looked up that is…_

The tree must have been over seventy feet tall and Dagny was perched right near the top. She was carefully balanced on a branch that looked far too thin to be able to support her. How she had gotten up that high in the first place completely baffled Tony.

"Dagny what are-? How did-? Get down from there!" At this Dagny stood up fully, and then went to jump. "No wait! Carefully!" Too late, Dagny jumped from the branch she was standing on to another branch on the tree directly next to the one she was currently in. She moved with a seemingly unnatural grace, weaving from branch to branch until finally she jumped the rest of the way down… it must have been a twenty foot straight drop and she landed on her feet, completely uninjured.

_Tony just stared…_

Well after a few minutes of letting everything register, Tony and Dagny started trying to find their way back to the house. It was lucky though that Dagny seemed to have become familiar with the area, just within the span of a few short hours … it was either that, or she just had a natural gift for finding her way around the woods. She led her father back to the manor in fifteen minutes flat.

_Thankfully the rest of the week they spent at the Vermont House went off without any further incidents._

_But at Dagny's request they would visit this beautiful place at least once a year from then on…_

* * *

Dagny's science fair project that same year was… interesting…

Normally her work was top-notch; more often than not she had the best project in the class. Some kids had said that it was because her father really made all of her projects for her, which wasn't true at all. Dagny had always done her own work… although there were times when Tony had stepped in; **(Usually to prevent things from blowing up… or to put out the fire from something that had already blown up.)** all the work was her own. But this year her project was… well…

"So just what is this Dagny?" Tony asked when he got to the Science fair, which was currently being held in the school's gymnasium. He looked at his daughter's project… unable to really decipher what it was. To him it looked like a lot of neatly typed out documents taped to a large piece of cardboard and several pictures diagraming the human liver.

"My project is on how the liver process's alcohol." She said simply. "This is my data, different clinical trials and right here is a chart of some people who have managed to build up a tolerance to alcohol, from least developed to most developed." Now it was the chart that really caught Tony's attention, mostly due to the fact that in the corner of _'Least Developed'_ there were a few pictures of teenagers and a picture of her Uncle Barton… **(This caused Tony chuckle to himself in a bit of amusement as he imagined how Hawkeye would feel if he knew how poorly Dagny thought of his drinking prowess.)** For the lineup of the _'Moderately Developed'_ there were a few other pictures only these were of random people… as well as Steve Rogers **(Still funny even if it was incorrect)**… and then finally in the category of _'Most Developed'_ in this there were only two pictures. One was of the country of Ireland, the other was of Thor.

"Um… honey, are you trying to say that your Uncle Thor can out drink someone from Ireland?" Tony questioned, honestly not quite sure what to make of the final depiction.

"No, I'm pretty sure that he can out drink the entire country." Dagny muttered as she took her assigned seat next to her project.

_Funny…_

_Possibly true… _

_But the entire project seemed like Dagny didn't really try…_

In the end Dagny came in 23rd out of 60. The first place winner was none other than J.J Hammer, who had made a small rocket and a diorama about space and satellites and other things along those lines… it was really well done, but Dagny could have done better in her sleep and Tony knew it. Even though he didn't say anything at that time. In fact the whole car ride back to the house was an oddly silent one. But when Tony pulled into the driveway and turned off the ignition he finally broke the uncomfortable silence.

"So Dagny, why didn't you try your best this time?" he asked calmly. Dagny just sighed sadly and rubbed her eyes.

"Because… because he needed to win." She whispered not looking her father in the eye. Of course this confused the hell out of Tony. Dagny had deliberately let J.J Hammer, her personal nemesis; win a science fair that she could have easily destroyed him at? It didn't make any sense.

"What do you mean he needed to win?"

"Your eyes." She said finally looking at her dad with an unreadable expression. "Every time you and Pepper look at me I can see that you guys love me. I can tell that just by looking in your eyes and it doesn't matter if I come in first or last… I know that you will still love me no matter what."

"Honey what does any of this have to do with-"

"J.J never gets those looks. His dad is always disappointed in him and his mother is drunk off her rocker so much she doesn't even know that he's there." Dagny muttered sadly. "I pretty much beat him at everything all the time! And his dad hates that above everything and actually makes fun of him for it! I… think that's why he's such a jerk to everyone all the time."

"You let him win… so his dad would be proud of him?" Tony concluded and Dagny slowly nodded.

"I feel sorry for him. I can't imagine what having a total asshole like Justin Hammer for a father must be like." She then hugged Tony tightly. "I'm so glad that you're my dad."

"And I'm so glad that you're my daughter." Tony said hugging her back. "You know that you're too nice Dagny. You can't lower yourself just to make others feel better."

"I'm not gonna make a habit out of it or anything." Dagny countered. "J.J is still a jerk and I'll probably punch him out when he starts gloating on Monday… but I just don't think that it's all his fault for being the way that he is."

* * *

_The years rolled on…_

A year after having Saffron, Pepper became pregnant again and the family welcomed its newest addition, a bouncing baby boy named Ryan. Ryan James Stark to be precise. Although Dagny's family wasn't the only one that was growing; as a few months after Ryan was born Natasha had her second child, a little girl named Annabelle Rose Romanoff. Since Dagny was older now and at times considered more responsible than Tony, she was often recruited to baby-sit all of the kids. Which was something that she loved to do anyway so she didn't mind. In fact it was one of the times when she had been watching the entire group while their parents went out for a night on the town that one of Dagny's special skills came to light.

_Dagny could sing beautifully…_

_If she had inherited a silver tongue, it had blessed her with a golden voice…_

The group had actually headed back a little early and they had walked in just as Dagny was singing a lullaby to all the kids. It was easy to see that she had natural, raw talent. Natasha pointed out that Dagny could probably sing professionally if she so desired... which she didn't… to her singing was just a fun hobby. In fact she had a lot of hobbies. She joined the gymnastics team at her school, as well as the track team and she was also a member of the art club. By joining these, Dagny's once poor social skills improved so much that she could make friends with just about anyone… It was a time of peace and quiet for everyone and for a long time that peace went on uninterrupted. In fact several of the major things to happen in these years took place when Dagny turned eighteen.

The first of which was that Thor and Jane finally had their first child. The child that would be the heir to the throne of Asgard was a small, blue-eyed little girl named Eve. Eve Thordottir, and like Dagny, she didn't have a middle name. Then of course there was Dagny's high school graduation; she was her class valedictorian while J.J Hammer was salutatorian. It made for an oddly tense ceremony that thankfully went off without any hitches… although when J.J made an attempt to push Dagny off of the stage he slipped and ended up falling down the stages stairs... But three days after graduation a letter came for Dagny… it was an acceptance letter from one of the best Art Academy's in the country. Apparently Dagny had not only been accepted, but she had been awarded a full scholarship as well.

"I don't remember you sending out any applications." Pepper commented as she watched Dagny literally do complex backflips and somersaults in joy.

"Admittedly I sent my application out a few weeks ago, along with my portfolio." She said as she finally stopped bouncing off the walls. But when Tony looked at the letter he was suddenly confused about something.

"Dagny honey, I don't think this acceptance letter is for you… it's addressed to someone named Dagny Embers."

"Um…" The young woman suddenly paused as a look of nervousness and embarrassment became very clear on her face. "No dad, that's me. I uh… used a fake name when I sent in my application. It's just that I wanted to get in because of my own talents and not because of your money."

_Perfectly understandable logic…_

_Although Tony did hack the schools records and fix Dagny's name change in order to prevent having to go through all the paperwork when she revealed that she had a different last name…_

* * *

_And then came every parent's worst nightmare…_

Dagny was now nineteen years old and was away at the Academy for what would be her second semester. Things had been going perfectly fine. She was doing well in all of her classes and Tony and Pepper were busy with Saffron and Ryan… who were quickly turning into a pair of rambunctious little geniuses with a knack for making little inventions and unsurprisingly… for blowing things up as well. The stories of what she was missing in her little brother and sister's lives only amplified how Dagny missed her family like crazy. In fact she always called home Saturday at 7pm, no matter where she was or what she was doing.

_Until…_

_One night Dagny didn't call…_

It was something that was instantly worrying because anyone who knew Dagny knew it was not like her at all. Things only got a thousand times worse the next day when Julie Smith,** (The same one from high-school was Dagny's best friend.)** called the Stark household and informed everyone that Dagny had disappeared while she was visiting with her and a couple of her other friends at a different college. According to them Dagny had offered to go and pick up a pizza from the pizzeria a few blocks away from the Julies dorm. She'd gone alone because it had been raining out and she enjoyed walking in the rain when no one else did… she'd said that she'd be back in an hour tops. But when she hadn't returned or called for over three hours everyone went out looking for her. They'd discovered much to their complete horror that she had never even made it to the pizzeria. The group had searched for Dagny all night before making that call.

_And Tony proceeded to call up the rest of the Avengers and all of S.H.I.E.L.D…_

_He organized and led an entire army to help him look for his missing daughter…_

_Yet even with all this at his disposal, no one heard a word from Dagny for two long weeks…_

_After what felt like an eternity, the phone rang..._

_The woman on the line was a nurse at a hospital…_

_They'd found Dagny…_

Actually Dagny had been brought in ten days ago by a random Good Samaritan who'd found her in a back alleyway a few blocks from the pizzeria. Because she had no I.D on her she was labeled a Jane Doe. She was in a coma when her family busted through the hospital doors looking for her. The poor girl had been savagely attacked in what was being labeled as a mugging gone wrong… _horribly wrong_… Dagny had a broken collarbone, four fractured ribs, her knuckles on her right hand were broken and her face looked like nothing more than one large bruise. But that wasn't even the worst part…

_The worst part was that she'd also been sexually assaulted…_

The police had managed to recover some genetic material and were currently running it through their databases trying to locate the man responsible and arrest him. Naturally this wasn't good enough for Tony who had Jarvis start hacking the police records. He vowed to find the bastard who did this to his daughter and castrate him with a rusty knife… he'd even promised to let Thor help him, as the god was in nothing short of a rage having learned what had happened to his niece.

"I should have been there to protect her!" Thor hissed wrathfully as he tried to keep a handle on his rage… and his tears… "I swore to Loki that I would protect her and I have failed!"

"I failed her too." Tony countered. "I should have been out there looking for her when she didn't call that first night."

_Nobody said anything else after that… _

_Dagny woke from her coma three days later…_

At first she was groggy from the drugs she'd had pumped into her and didn't quite seem to grasp where she was or what had happened. But over a little time she began to remember just what had occurred that night… the story she told was that she was walking in the rain to the pizzeria only to be ambushed by three thugs who came out of an alleyway. They'd tried to mug her but Dagny had fought back and viciously so. According to her, she had broken her knuckles while punching one of the thugs' lights out, definitely breaking some of the bones in his face as well as possibly breaking his jaw too. She had also gouged out one of the others eyes… in short, she had taken out two out of her three attackers before the final punk had clubbed her upside the head with something hard and metallic which Dagny assumed might have been a pipe. After that everything went black…

It was Pepper who had the unpleasant job of informing Dagny that she had been sexually assaulted and it went without saying that Dagny didn't take it very well. She cried for a while, but then calmed down… as she bitterly acknowledged how lucky she was to have been unconscious when the rape had occurred.

_She was angry but she would heal…_

_She assured her family of that…_

* * *

It was nothing short of unfortunate that the police managed to catch the perpetrators before Tony and Thor did. Good news for the criminals though **(Even if one of them had been permanently blinded by Dagny in the fight.)** it meant there would be no castrating and slow, tedious, painful deaths. Well, at least not at the moment anyway… But after the trial and sentencing when they were being led out of the courthouse Tony managed to casually warn them that they might seriously want to consider suicide; because if and when they got out… he would be waiting for them…

_And he promised that their bodies would never be found, not even with a microscope…_

_Sadly though, this mess didn't end with the thug's imprisonment…_

* * *

About three weeks after her release from the hospital, Dagny insisted on returning to school. Even though she wasn't fully healed... mentally or physically… Tony didn't think she should go back, but Dagny had grimly pointed out that she would rather return to the Academy and do something constructive rather than sit around and drown in her troubles. So she returned to the Art School… although it was noticeable to all of her instructors that the fire of life that usually blazed in her green eyes had seemed to have gone out. The best way to describe her transformation was that she had essentially become a zombie. She may walk and talk like Dagny… but on the inside something was either missing or broken. Nonetheless, life continued on for the next five weeks. Even if it felt like everything was moving in slow motion for Dagny. And yet it was at this time that she made a discovery… a frightening one that led to her going home to talk to her parents face to face. As she was unable to talk to them about this over the phone. Imagine Tony and Peppers surprise when Dagny came home early… It was unexpected; but then again so was what she had to say…

_She was pregnant…_

Dagny hadn't been on birth-control because she wasn't sexually active; hell she'd never even been on an actual _'date'_ once in her life. But now here she was, smack dab in the middle of one _**very**_ unforeseen situation. Still, she would not go through this alone. She had a loving family to support her no matter what she decided to do. So after having a long and serious discussion about all the options, a decision was finally made. Dagny wanted to keep the baby. Even if it was the result of an assault, it was hardly the child's fault… not to mention that Dagny had always planned to have children someday, albeit much farther in the future than this. Since she was still early in her pregnancy, she decided to return to her school for the time being and finish up the year. Since after doing some calculations it was determined that the baby would be born in the late summer just before the fall semester would begin.

_Dagny knew how difficult her choice would make her life…_

_But this is was the path she chose..._

So nine months later and Dagny was back at home for the final days of her pregnancy. She was currently due in three days, her back hurt and her father was getting on her nerves… it was just like when Pepper had been pregnant, Tony got overprotective and treated the pregnant individual like she was made of glass. In short, Tony Stark always got nothing short of _**really**_ annoying. In fact… it was right when Dagny thought she might end up throwing him out the window that her water broke.

_Thirteen hours of labor and several severely injured doctors later…_

_Dagny gave birth to a healthy little girl…_

_She named her daughter Rhea, which was Greek for flowing river… _

_Tony cried when he held his little granddaughter…_

_Because that meant he was a grandpa…_

_And that meant he was now officially old…_

_Pepper slapped him for that…_

* * *

It was only after Dagny had Rhea that she truly returned to being her old self again. She started listening to music and singing happily to her newborn. The flames of her life burning brightly in her eyes once more.

Rhea was a beautiful child. She had pale skin that was as smooth and as flawless as marble and she had a faint dusting of black hair atop her small head. Her eyes were different though as she had heterochromia, a rare condition where the eyes are two different colors. Her right eye was a light jade green while her left eye was ocean blue. But there was one thing that Dagny found strange…

_Her daughter had the same 'birthmarks' that she did…_

It was really quite strange; although Tony just explained that it was some strange trait from her mother's side of the family. **(Which wasn't really a lie, Tony reasoned in his mind… although he was unaware that Dagny had been born with wings and a tail… as Thor had completely forgotten to mention it at this point.)** In fact aside from the obvious thing with her eyes, Rhea looked exactly like her mother who in turn looked exactly like Loki… Banner speculated that since Dagny had Loki's genes all of those traits would be dominate. When he asked Thor about this, the god acknowledged it was a distinct possibility. As apparently Midgardian genes are capable of blending with Asgardian and apparently Jotun genes… but since humans are a weaker species in general their traits would be considerably less prominent. Hence why Rhea resembled Dagny like a miniature copy… the same went for Thor and Jane's daughter Eve, since it should be noted that she looked exactly Thor with blonde hair and sapphire eyes.

_Curiosity satisfied…_

* * *

Dagny graduated from the Academy with full honors and a mountain of job offers when she was twenty-two years old. It was impossible not to notice how she'd changed in those three years; having gone from an attractive teenage girl to a beautiful young woman. She was the mother of an adorable three year old and there was little doubt in anyone's mind that she was going to be successful. But, she did need one little thing to start off in life which Tony gave to her as a graduation present…

_He gave her the Vermont House…_

It made perfect sense to Tony, as over the years it became clear that Dagny loved going to that place moreso than anyone else. And since she had now graduated from the Art Academy and had a little daughter to care for it only struck him as an appropriate present to give.

_Although Dagny nearly broke his spine in a bone-crushing hug when she thanked him over and over again…_

_And life continued on from there until the day of Dagny's twenty-third birthday…_

_The story begins now…_

* * *

Dagny's large eyes seemed to glow like emerald flames as she slowly scanned the bedroom of her sleeping child. Rhea lay in her bed deep in a dream filled sleep. She wore a pair of simple blue and white pajamas and clamped tightly in her arms was what was once Dagny's favorite stuffed animal, the little blue dragon… although it had gotten a bit raggedy over the years, it was every bit as beloved to Rhea as it had been to her mother. Dagny smiled as she watched the little girl shift slightly in her sleep, a small happy smile ghosting across her face.

"_Must be one good dream."_ Dagny thought to herself as she lingered in the doorway for a second longer before turning and leaving while closing the door, yet still leaving it open just a crack. Just enough for some of the light from the hallway to shine in. Content that her daughter was alright and sleeping peacefully, Dagny proceeded to walk outside into the winter landscape. Freshly fallen snow blanketed the mountains and the forests that surrounded Dagny's home and she smiled as she walked barefoot out onto the untouched winter wonderland. She'd never had a problem with the bitter cold, in fact she liked it. Casting her gaze up at the full moon that shone beautiful and bright her smile became much more mischievous; as though the moonlight had awakened something.

_And that was when she took off running into the forest…_

Had there actually been any trespassers in the woods that night who would have caught a glimpse of Dagny as she ran, they would have never guessed in a million years what they had seen was a person! She moved so fast and so gracefully that many would have mistaken her for a deer, maybe a wolf… or for the more superstitious folk a spirit, or perhaps even a wraith. But there was nobody else in these woods except for Dagny and even if there had been she wouldn't have cared… her heart was racing in her chest as she weaved through the trees and over any obstacles that were in her path. Her speed was undeniably inhuman, her grace was even moreso. She just kept running and running as fast as she could until she came to a fallen tree that was propped up against a large boulder; without sacrificing any of her speed Dagny ran up this fallen tree and when she came to its end she jumped off and grabbed onto the branch of another tree which she then swung up onto and stood on. From there she climbed straight up, until she reached one particular branch which she proceeded to sit cross-legged on and look out onto the scene before her…

Essentially Dagny had just run up one of the mountains that surrounded her home and was now lounging high up in the branches of one of the tallest trees. From this perch she looked down at the lake and her house, both of which she could clearly see from this position. Naturally she already knew that she would be able to as this definitely wasn't the first time she'd gone on one of these little late-night runs to this particular tree. This was one of her favorite places to be… to just sit back, relax and watch the world below her.

"A nightingale in a golden cage, that's me locked inside reality's maze! Come someone make my heavy heart light, it all starts with a lullaby!" Dagny happily sang some of the lyrics to her favorite song, _Escapist_, by Nightwish. She loved this song in particular because she often thought it described who she was perfectly. She'd even jokingly referred to herself as the Escapist on more than one occasion... But returning her attention to more immediate issues, Dagny pulled back the sleeve of her shirt to look at her watch… it was midnight. At this she chuckled slightly and looked up into the starry sky.

"Happy Birthday to me, the big twenty three!" She said as she declined slightly in her position in the trees branches. Indeed Dagny was happy but not just because it was her birthday, she was happy because of what she had planned to do for her birthday. A little later on she and her daughter were going to take a train down to New York City and head over to Stark Tower, where she had planned to meet her family. To Dagny there was simply no way she was going to miss an opportunity to see her dad, Pepper and her kid brother and sister. God she wondered how much those two had grown since she'd last seen them. She'd been told that Clint, Natasha, Dmitri and Annabelle would be there but that was hardly a surprise… **(As Clint and Natasha had actually been allowed by Tony to move into the apartment at Stark Tower shortly after Dmitri was born… provided of course that they not blow anything up and that they allow Tony, Pepper and their brood to crash there whenever they were in the city. This was nothing short of reasonable since the apartment was huge and the assassin family was essentially living there rent free.)** But she wasn't so sure about her Uncles Bruce and Steve since she'd heard that they were currently off doing some sort of mission for S.H.I.E.L.D. As for Thor, she wasn't sure he'd make it this time simply because Jane was pregnant again and from what Dagny had been told, she was a week and a half overdue. Although should they actually be there Dagny had a gift for Jane, since she had been busy with a project and was unable to make it to the baby shower.

Admittedly Dagny was also looking forward to a little break from her job. She worked as a concept artist and character designer for a relatively new company called _Mercy Gaming Corp_. She'd actually received the job offer on the same day that she'd graduated from the Academy. Which was kind of strange… what was even stranger was that the job offer came straight from the company's owner, who had somehow heard about Dagny and chose her out of hundreds of other more experienced artists… Still the strangeness aside, the job paid very well and Dagny had tons of creative liberties and she was even allowed to work from home. When it came down to designing the characters or monsters for a specific game the company was developing she'd correspond directly with the same man who had hired her **(Who apparently had a brilliant mind for videogames and was the main brain behind every game that Mercy Gaming made…)** via Instant-Messaging. But that was about as close as they ever got to actually meeting. Still from their chats Dagny determined that she liked her boss… and she'd even explained how she wasn't going to be doing any work for the next week because she'd be visiting her family in NYC. Since Manhattan was also where Mercy Gaming's headquarters was, out of curiosity she asked if they could perhaps meet, simply for the sake of knowing who the other person actually was…

_A simple and quick __**'No'**__ was the only reply she got from her boss…_

Dagny stayed where she was for several more hours, deep in thought. Until the first rays of sunlight signaled dawns approach. She sighed and effortlessly jumped down from her position in the tree and began racing back towards her home as fast as she could.

_It was a true shame that Dagny didn't know just how bad this day was gonna go…_

_As a certain god of mischief had finally managed to escape his prison…_

_And was now coming to claim his stolen child…_

_**To be continued….**_

**Alright… yeah, I'm just gonna let everyone know right now that none of the future chapters will be anywhere near as long as this one… There was just a lot of stuff that I really wanted to put into this particular chapter, hence the reason why it's so incredibly lengthy. Still, I hope that everyone enjoyed it and please remember to Read and Review! :)**

**Also my apologies I accidently deleted the line seperations when I fixed a spelling error, they should be fixed now. Really sorry about that!**


	3. Summoning

**Chapter 2**

**Summoning**

…_Freedom…_

…_Sweet Freedom…_

That was all Loki could think as took several deep breaths of the cold Midgardian air. It had been so long since he had been able to look up at the sky, to feel the warmth of the sun on his skin… and even the foul-smelling and polluted air of Manhattan smelled fresh when in comparison to the stagnant air from within the dungeons of Asgard that he had been confined in for all of these years... For twenty three years he had been locked away in a small, dark cell deep under the castle. For twenty three years his mouth was sewn closed to prevent him from uttering a single word. For twenty three years he was left alone, never having so much as a visitor to distract him from his pain… from the misery of being trapped in his own private hell.

_But not anymore…_

When Loki had finally escaped from Asgard he had done so in a blazing hellish fury! He'd left a trail of carnage and destruction in his wake; the result of all those years of his silently growing rage. Even though he was nearly blinded by his hatred and anger, Loki had managed to keep his mind focused on his main goal… to get to Midgard and find his stolen daughter. Never before had he been more grateful for Thor's predictable actions. As Loki had known the second that Thor had left with Dagny that he would take her to his precious Earth. So once he had created a sizeable enough distraction, Loki had fled to one of the secret paths between the worlds and managed to sneak back into Midgard. He had been truly fortunate in the fact that Thor was not on Asgard during his escape; otherwise he doubted everything would have gone as smoothly as it did… Even though the thoughts and images of various tortures that Loki planned to inflict on Thor and the rest of those imbeciles he called friends filled his heart with a wicked glee, he knew that now was not the time for that… his daughter first, revenge later.

Currently the god of Mischief had set up a temporary base within an abandoned warehouse. It was far from comfortable and its proximity to the bay caused it to reek of fish, mildew and rotting wood. But it would do for now… he quietly paced the floors of this wretched hideout, his insides churning due to the smell but also due to his growing anxiety and anticipation. Loki had used so much of his magic during his escape that it had left him considerably weakened… **(Under normal circumstances that would not have been the case, but after so many years in a specialized cell that drained off most of his magic it was taking him longer than usual to recover.) **The toll it had taken on him was indeed heavier than he had expected, but it did not matter… not now… not when he was so close… Finally stopping his nervous pacing, Loki brought something that he had been holding tightly in his hand up to his eye level and inspected it. It was a small, crumbled up black feather…

_One of Dagny's feathers…_

He'd managed to carefully pluck one of his newborn daughters baby feathers before he'd handed her off to his mother and for all these long years he'd held onto it. As a skilled sorcerer, he'd been able to use this feather as a focus and it had allowed for what little magic he could use from within his cell to form a connection with his child. To send her his love… but now that he was free and had full access to his magic once again he knew that he could use it to do so much more than that.

_He could use it to find her… _

If he wasn't so weak he would have teleported himself straight to his daughter's location and that would have been that… but since he was in no condition to attempt such a feat he was going to have to do the next best thing. He was going to use a spell to summon Dagny to come to him. Now summoning was a unique spell, basically it would put the person who was being summoned in a deep trance-like state and no matter where they were or what they were doing, they would immediately be drawn to the person who was summoning them. The individual would retain only the most basic of thought, so that way they wouldn't accidentally die while in the trance… in other words it prevented the individual from walking off a cliff or into on-coming traffic, they would simply take the most effective route possible to their summoner.

_It wasn't a terribly complex spell but it would more than suffice... _

By reaching out with his magic, he could feel that at this time she was somewhere in this city. The Trickster god felt the excitement welling inside of his chest almost to the point of bursting. Dagny was so close… again if he didn't fear being discovered, he would have followed the connection that he had with his daughter and found her personally. He steadied himself and began to whisper the words of the summoning spell under his breath. After a few moments the small black feather began to glow a faint green color as the spell took hold. Loki's eyes widened and a smile that had been lost to his features for so many years finally reappeared.

"_Soon my little baby girl… soon we will be together."_

* * *

It was a six and a half hour train ride from Vermont to Manhattan so Dagny and Rhea had boarded the train that morning at 6:30 am in order to arrive in New York City early in the afternoon. Rhea, being like most four year olds hated waking up so early, but she didn't make too much of a fuss since it was her mom's birthday. And once she and her mother were safely on the train she curled up in her seat and fell back to sleep. Which was fine with Dagny, it wasn't like there was anything else for her to do anyway… In the meantime Dagny just slipped on her headphones and spent the bulk of her time looking out the window, quietly watching the world pass her by. Rhea slept through a good portion of the ride, only waking up for good once the train started nearing the city and it became considerably louder from the sudden increase in people. The little girl moved closer to her mother; quickly becoming uncomfortable with being surrounded by strangers. Indeed, Rhea was actually quite shy when it came to anyone outside of her family. Dagny just smiled down at her young daughter and gently rubbed her head; this comforting motion did seem to ease the child's fears. Evident when Rhea looked up at her mother and smiled back innocently. That precious little smile always managed to fill Dagny's heart with happiness and love; oh how she wished that things would never change.

Nonetheless, once Dagny and Rhea arrived at Manhattan at 1 o'clock in the afternoon they began heading straight for Stark Tower… until they got a little sidetracked along the way… namely the two got some hot dogs from a vendor and were currently sitting on a bench in Central Park feeding what remained of the buns to a small gathering of pigeons. And even though it was freezing outside neither Dagny nor Rhea where dressed particularly warm; as both had a very high tolerance for the cold…

_Unknowingly amongst other things…_

"Do you think grandpa and grandma missed me?" Rhea asked timidly as she tore another small piece of bread into crumbs before throwing the said crumbs to the awaiting birds.

"Of course they have sweetheart. And I'll bet that your cousins Saffron and Ryan have missed you too!" Dagny said with a broad grin as she threw the last of her bread to the pigeons. Naturally Ryan and Saffron would technically be considered Rhea's aunt and uncle but since they were only a few years older than their niece, it was just easier if they identified each other as cousins for now.

"Yeah…" The little girl said and she suddenly became very quiet. Her large eyes seemed to be out of focus as she became immersed deep within her thoughts. Dagny tilted her head slightly in confusion at this. She often wondered what went on in the secrecy of her child's mind; as she mentally recalled how her father had pointed out how alien Dagny's own mind had seemed to him when she was at that age.

"What are you thinking about my little one?" She asked curiously. Rhea blinked once, coming out of her thoughts. But when she looked up at her mother her eyes were shining with a deep sadness…

"I was just remembering my dreams. " Rhea answered quietly. Now at this Dagny frowned slightly; lately her beloved baby girl had been having some very strange dreams… while it wasn't the dreams themselves that worried her; it was the sleepwalking that seemed to go hand in hand with it that did. Sometimes Dagny would wake up **(As she was thankfully a very light sleeper…)** to the sound of the front door opening and closing and when she'd gone to investigate she'd found Rhea sleepwalking outside, heading towards the forest. Or there were the much less common times when Rhea had somehow managed to fill her entire room with snow and ice… these times were beyond confusing as while they may have happened in the winter, Dagny wasn't quite sure how her daughter had managed to get all that snow in her room in the first place! As Rhea couldn't have gone outside and her window was always tightly locked. And Dagny was quite sure that the little girl didn't know how to unlock her window yet. It was confusing and frightening all at the same time… but she didn't ask her parents what to do in this situation. Hell, she didn't even let them know about it.

_A little voice in the back of her mind had warned her not too…_

"What about your dreams baby?" Dagny asked calmly. "Are they the same ones that make you sleepwalk?"

"Yeah… mommy I don't want to sleepwalk here! What if I fall off the roof of the tower?!" Rhea squeaked fearfully; Dagny immediately hugged her frightened child close and quietly whispered comforting things to her. In spite of only having been a parent for a few years, Dagny had found that her maternal instincts had come surprisingly easy to her.

"You don't need to worry about that Rhea, at night all the doors that go outside are locked tight so only an adult can open them." Naturally this wasn't exactly accurate, but it was at least partially true… as the doors that led out onto the towers balcony were usually locked at night... Or at least they would be now when Dagny checked them during their stay.

"Are you sure?" Rhea asked, while still nervous her voice sounded much calmer now after getting some reassurance from her mother.

"Positive." And at that Dagny stood up and stretched, successfully scaring away the few lingering pigeons. "Now how about we start heading towards the tower eh? We don't want to keep Grandma and Grandpa waiting any longer, do we?"

"No we don't!" Rhea said as a large smile immediately appeared on her face, all of her worries seeming to vanish at the thought of seeing her much beloved grandparents. She jumped up from her seat and quickly latched onto Dagny's hand. As the two began to walk out of the park Rhea looked up at her mother, her eyes seeming to sparkle like gemstones in the afternoon sunlight. "Hey mommy, I forgot to tell you something earlier..."

"Hmm? What's that?"

"Happy Birthday!"

Dagny smiled warmly down at Rhea, and the two continued onward towards Stark Tower. But it was after they had been walking for a while that Dagny started to feel… _strange…_

Strange was definitely putting it mildly. The first thing that she felt was the hypothetical _'thread'_ in the back of her mind suddenly being pulled tight, like what always occurred every year on her birthday. Within her heart Dagny usually welcomed this and the feeling of love that always accompanied it. Only this time she was immediately aware that something felt very different than it usually did… there was no feeling of love this time. No… this time it felt as though there was something else being sent to her, it was somewhat confusing as the only thing that Dagny could feel was her entire body starting to well up with some sort of energy.

_And it definitely did not feel pleasant..._

In fact it felt stagnant and cold and was quickly becoming overpowering… and as more and more of this strange energy continued to flood into her body, Dagny started to feel sick, although she did do her absolute best to not show it. But it was the feeling of this gut-wrenching sickness that was the last thing to register in her conscious mind before she began to black out entirely.

_Her last panicked thoughts were of Rhea…_

But no one would have known any of this by looking at her; as unbeknownst to Dagny, even though she had just slipped into unconsciousness she hadn't so much as lost her pace as she continued walking with her daughter. The only indication that something unusual was happening was the fact that Dagny's pupils had literally disappeared and a faint, eerie glow filled her eyes. It was right when the mother and daughter were crossing a busy intersection along with a couple dozen or so other individuals that Rhea's hand slipped out of Dagny's for just a second…

_And just like that they were separated…_

Rhea went to grab back onto her mother's hand only to find that she was no longer walking next to her. In fact her mother was nowhere to be seen. Almost immediately the little girl began to panic! "Mommy?" She whispered fearfully. "Mommy?! Mommy where are you!? Mommy?!" She called out but only earned a few odd looks from several strangers as they passed her by.

_Rhea was now all alone in New York City…_

* * *

"What time was Dagny supposed to arrive again?" Natasha asked Pepper as they, along with a heavily pregnant Jane, were currently sitting on the extremely comfortable sofa in the apartment while Ryan was in Dmitri's room; playing some videogames and listening to the older boy play his drums. **(As Dmitri was really quite good and had expressed a desire to be a musician.)** Saffron was with Annabelle in her room and they were playing a few games of their own. Lastly, little Eve was laying on the floor a little ways away from her mother, quietly coloring in a coloring book. Meanwhile down in the lab all the adult children... aka Tony, Barton and Steve and Banner **(Who were able to make it after all.) **were all currently hanging out… while Thor had been summoned urgently back to Asgard some hours earlier and was yet to return.

"Her train is supposed to arrive at about one-ish; but she said that she'd get here about two." Pepper explained with a slight chuckle. "She probably wants to take Rhea to feed the pigeons in central park."

"In this weather?" Jane asked in partial disbelief. "I don't think it's even twenty degrees outside."

"That won't stop Dagny. She's practically immune to the cold, and Rhea's the same way." Pepper explained.

"I just hope that she can help calm down this stupid spat between Dmitri and Barton. I don't think I can take it much longer…" Natasha muttered as she rubbed her temples. Indeed, not all things were going well for the pair of assassins. Lately Dmitri and his father had been having nothing short of an all-out war… what the fight was about Natasha didn't even know anymore. It had gotten to the point where father and son were either arguing with each other, or completely ignoring one another. Natasha had tried to calm the situation down several times, but that hadn't gone over so well. Dmitri had accused his mother of taking his father's side and got angry with her… in fact it seemed that the only people in his family that Dmitri wasn't angry with was his younger sister… and his not-related-sister Dagny. Dmitri actually had a very strong bond with Dagny and they were just as close as actual siblings. So with Dagny's assistance, Natasha was hoping that she might be able to finally to mediate peace in her family.

"Don't worry; I'm sure that everything will work out." Jane said sympathetically. Natasha just sighed loudly.

"Yeah… I hope so. But you guys are lucky that you're kids are still in that _'cute'_ phase. This is bad enough, but I'm just afraid of what's gonna happen when Anne starts dating."

"You're afraid of that?!" Jane commented with a dry laugh. "I'm **dreading** what happens when Eve brings a boy home to meet us. Thor isn't exactly subtle; I'm afraid that if he threatens the poor kid he'll get the cops called on him. And I'm not sure how that would go over…"

A brief yet contented silence fell between the three individuals; Natasha paused as she thought back on everything that had happened in her life. If someone had told her that this is where her life would take her she would have laughed in their face… and then probably shot them… still… she had to admit that she was happy, things could be better between Dmitri and Barton but even with that **(and it was a headache…)** things were pretty good. She was happy, a mother… and still one kick-ass assassin. But what brought her out of her thoughts was when Eve suddenly looked up from her coloring book and her eyes lit up and she ran over to the balcony door yelling _'Daddy!'_

_It appeared that Thor had returned…_

_And he didn't look happy…_

Although he did do his best to hide his obvious agitation from his daughter, but just the look in his eyes made things immediately apparent to the adults in the room that something wasn't right. Thor said something to Eve somewhere along the lines of _'Go play with the others'_ and the little girl quickly went back, grabbed her coloring book and crayons, and scampered off into the room with Saffron and Annabelle. It was only once she was gone that he turned his attention back to the others.

"Thor what's wrong?" Jane asked worriedly.

"It is my brother Loki," Thor answered seriously. "He has escaped from Asgard and I believe that he is coming here."

_The color drained from everyone's faces..._

"Jarvis!" Pepper immediately called out. As she was fully aware of what the magnitude of this news meant.

"Already informing the others to proceed upstairs." The A.I almost instantaneously answered… Sure enough it took a few minutes before all of the guys made it up to the apartment; although it was obvious that Jarvis hadn't mentioned the actual reason, having merely stated that whatever it was about was rather urgent.

"This had better be important Hammer-Time; I was just about to show everyone my latest creation, the only blender in the world capable of pureeing a brick!" Stark said with false animosity. He was clearly in a great mood. The same was to be said for Steve, Bruce and even Barton… and foolishly they were all thinking that nothing could possibly spoil it.

"Loki has escaped... and I fear he is coming for Dagny."

_And just like that, everyone's good mood died…_

"Okay, okay nobody panic." Steve said as calmly as he could considering the circumstances… and also considering that the look on Tony's face virtually screamed that he was about to get his suit and start his own private hunt for the escaped psychotic god. "What makes you so sure that Loki would even come for Dagny."

"Because he loves her Rogers. That right there is all the reason he needs." Tony growled as he immediately began working with several of the monitors in the apartment. Stark being Stark, he was more than capable of running the exact same program that S.H.I.E.L.D had used to first locate Loki in Stuttgart Germany… namely sweeping every wireless camera on the planet in order to find the god of Mischief before he found Dagny.

"Stark speaks the truth." Thor confirmed. "Of all the children he has birthed, Dagny is the only one that he might be able to…" he stopped there as an unreadable emotion suddenly settled in his eyes.

"To what?" Banner asked, not liking how the Thunderer just randomly stopped mid-sentence. Thor swallowed uncomfortably as his voice betrayed the emotion in his eyes to be a deep, probably haunting sadness.

"…to save…"

_...a pin could be heard dropping a mile away..._

"But Dagny doesn't need saving!" Pepper injected. "We love her; none of us would ever hurt her!"

"Loki doesn't know that." Thor continued darkly. "The only thing he knows is that she was taken from him after she was born... Just like all the others."

…_these words caused an unpleasant silence to fall over everyone present…_

_...and the scarcest feelings of sympathy for their enemy to form in some of their hearts…_

* * *

_The old abandoned church was the perfect place for the party…_

Or at least that was what this particular individual thought as he sat back in the ratty old antique chair at the head of the table, which had been set up in the place where normally the altar was located. It was a decent sized table, large enough to fit several plates of various sweets. There were cinnamon buns, raspberry croissants and in the very center of the table was a large cake which was apparently vanilla with buttercream frosting. While at first glance there appeared to be four chairs it appeared that the only person seated at the table was a young man…

This man was dressed in a fancy white suit with white gloves and white shoes. His skin was abnormally pale, almost like porcelain. He had medium length black hair that went down to the base of his neck that looked shaggy and somewhat unkempt. His eyes were a bright jade green… but the pupil almost looked slitted in the faint lighting of the church. In his left hand he effortless was twirling something in faint lazy circles; this something being an ornately crafted silver flute with various runes etched into it. In his right hand he held a small book which he was reading and apparently enjoying very much, as was evident by the smile on his face.

_Only his smile was a sick cross between feral and insane…_

"Ah, I know that I've read this book a million times but it never gets boring. _'Alice in Wonderland'_ is a true classic, the movies just can't compare. Don't you agree?" He addressed one of the other empty chairs at the table… only it was like he seemed to have forgotten that he was alone and for a second his psychotic smile faltered. But after a second he threw his head back and laughed. "It doesn't matter… I'll be setting things in motion soon enough." At that the man stopped twirling the flute… and a long, forked, snake-like tongue slipped out of his mouth and then slipped back in. "Once I get the ball rolling I will have to deal with that group… or at the very least whichever one has the tower here. Which one was that again? Meh, I don't care." And just like that he dismissed those thoughts. This wasn't the time for planning; it was a time for celebrating!

_It was his birthday today after all…_

_**Alright that's it for now! I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter and as always please remember to Read and Review! ^_^**_


	4. Uncertain

**Chapter 3**

**…Uncertain…**

_Hours had passed with no sign of Dagny or Rhea…_

Needless to say the once cheery atmosphere in the tower had dramatically changed; now the tension caused it to feel comparable to a powder keg… as in all that it would take was one small spark for everything to ignite. While the younger children weren't fully informed on what was going on, they were well aware that something was wrong. Although whenever they tried to ask they were only told to leave… of course just because they weren't in the room didn't mean that they weren't listening. Ryan, Annabel and Saffron were all currently eavesdropping on the adults as best they could with very little success. Dmitri was a different story altogether. Sharp as a tack and possessing a mostly calm, grounded nature, the eldest boy was allowed to be informed about the situation currently at hand. Dmitri in appearance was a perfect fusion of his parents' traits. He was fairly tall and had a slim yet muscular build and his skin had a healthy tan to it. His eyes were just like Natasha's, a deep ocean blue whilst he had his father's dirty blonde hair which was short but looked a bit unkempt. He wore a black tee shirt that clearly came from a Black Sabbath concert; he also wore black fingerless gloves, a pair of worn out looking black Hot Topic jeans, and black boots.

"So let me get this straight…" Dmitri said as he scanned the various images that were rapidly appearing and disappearing on the monitors that Tony Stark and Bruce Banner were currently using. "Loki, the psycho who tried to take over the world all those years ago has escaped from prison and now he's back… and… after Dagny?"

"That pretty much sums it up." Tony said quickly glancing over his shoulder at Dmitri for a moment before returning his attention to the monitors he had been watching.

"…why? I mean I can get that he wants revenge and all but why would he want to target Dagny in particular? Hell, how would he know who she is for that matter?"

"It's complicated." Clint muttered from where he was currently readying his arrows for when he and his fellow Avengers inevitably encountered the Trickster god once again.

The teenager snorted irritably. "Right; translation _'We're not gonna tell you the truth anyway so stop asking Dmitri.'_ Feel free to stop me if I'm wrong dad..."

"Knock it off you two! There are far more important things going on other than your stupid fight!" Natasha hissed lethally at her son and gave her lover a look warning him not to say anything in response either. Dmitri just let out an agitated sigh and proceeded to let the topic drop.

"I fear that Loki may already have Dagny. Is it not far past the time that she was supposed to arrive?" Thor asked, although this did earn him several dark looks from most everybody in the room, in particularly Tony and Pepper. Although this was mostly due to the fact that the Thunder god made a good point… Dagny and Rhea were supposed to arrive around two o'clock; however it was currently four thirty and no one had seen or heard anything from either of them.

"Even if Loki tries to go after Dagny, I still think she could take him." Dmitri commented, now trying to be at least somewhat optimistic. "I mean after all this is _**Dagny**_ we're talking about! She never goes anywhere without that taser that Darcy gave her. Not to mention that she is also crazy strong anyway!"

"Normally I'd agree with you Dmitri; but… there are-" Steve started to say, only to be interrupted by the sound of one of the monitors beeping loudly. Successfully drawing everyone's attention to the image on the screen. The image was clearly of a man who strongly resembled the Trickster god sitting on the roof of an old run-down church… only he was clearly wearing different clothes; namely a clean cut white suit…

"Got him." Tony said as the picture was immediately magnified and compared side by side to an image of Loki.

"Sixty-nine percent match sir." Jarvis stated. "Although due to the poor quality of this image it is difficult to reach any higher level of conformation." It was true, the picture wasn't very good… but Thor took a step forward, his eyes wide with shock and utter disbelief.

"That is my brother I am sure of it!" he declared… but confusion written on his face did not subside. "But… he looks many years younger!"

"Did he use a spell to reverse his age?" Natasha questioned. "Why would he do that?"

"I… I do not know." Thor admitted with a cold sorrow noticeable in his voice. "I have not seen him in twenty three years. Not since the day I took Dagny from him."

"Whoa, whoa, you what?!" Dmitri exclaimed as Thor now received **extremely** agitated looks from everyone in the room as he had just blabbed the truth in front of Natasha and Clint's teenage son.

_...It did appear that the Thunder god needed to work harder on developing a filter between his brain and his mouth... _

"So wait, Dagny is… is really-"

"What you've just learned doesn't leave this room Dmitri." Tony said without casting the boy so much as a glance as he hurriedly began working on locating an address to accompany that snapshot. Something that he obtained with very little difficulty. "And I've got his location; so let's move!"

"Stark we need a plan first!" Steve interrupted, preventing the agitated billionaire from just rocketing off after his newly acquired target. Granted in this particular circumstance he could hardly blame Tony for wanting to go rushing off.

"The bastards got my daughter and granddaughter Rogers!" Just the fact that Tony said this out loud brought to light the very thing that everyone had been too afraid to say. But there was a different look in Jane's eyes… a softer look, one full of pity.

"Don't you mean that he has _**his**_ daughter?" Jane commented, successfully drawing everyone's attention to her. "I mean one way or another she is his daughter, his baby girl. If he truly has come for her I don't think that he means her any harm."

"After all these years… I am unsure of my brother's mental state. While he may want to reclaim Dagny, he may still be a danger to her and little Rhea." Thor tried to explain; but Tony had heard enough and was done listening.

"Yeah well whether she's his child through blood or not, I have reservations about my daughter and granddaughter being captured by a mentally unstable god."Tony growled wickedly. "I'm going after him; anyone coming with me better suit up, shut up and be ready to kick ass!"

"I'm coming too!" Dmitri quickly injected. This only succeeded in getting him a stern and somewhat irritated glare from both of his parents.

"No you're not!" Barton stated flatly. "You are staying right here!" Naturally this didn't sit too well with Dmitri and yet another fight began to break out between the father and son. Natasha just sighed in growing aggravation and put her face in her hand, silently praying for those two to quit it with the arguing. Fortunately her prayer was answered in the form of Steve Rogers who got between Clint and Dmitri and successfully managed to calm the two of them down.

"Dmitri, Dmitri listen to me. You have to stay here… because if something goes wrong you have to take care of everyone that's still here at the tower. Your sister, Ryan and Saffron as well as Jane and Pepper. You need to be in case something goes wrong… your needed here." Steve's words clearly struck home within the boy and after a minute or so he quietly nodded and backed off. Although this left Barton and Natasha to exchange silent, unhappy looks… As it now seemed that everyone had a better relationship with Dmitri than he had with his parents. A depressing notion indeed.

_And with that the Avengers set out to the supposed location of Loki…_

* * *

After waiting for hours that could have been mistaken for an eternity, Loki heard the main door to the warehouse creak open and he watched as a lone form entered. Loki wasn't foolish, he had been careful to keep himself hidden deep in the shadows. Just in case this person was some random Midgardian and not his lost daughter… But this individual was drawn straight to where he stood, even though he was practically invisible whilst in the darkness of the warehouse. As the figure approached him his heart skipped a beat and any doubt in his mind was gone. At long last, there stood his child, his daughter…

_And she was so beautiful…_

She stood before him, still deep in the trance. As it would not lift until as such time as Loki released it. But before doing so he took a moment to truly take in what his daughter looked like… Dagny was quite tall standing at approximately 6'1 to 6'2. Her large eyes were normally a deep emerald, but due to the spell they were now glowing a bright electric green. Her skin was just like Loki's, as pale as moonlight and her long flowing ink black hair went down to the center of her back. She carried a lightweight decorative grey colored shoulder bag that was adorned with the image of a light blue crescent moon, while her fingernails were painted black and she had three small grey spike earrings in each ear. Dagny wore a loose fitting black and green colored shirt with wide bell-sleeves that almost hid her hands. She also wore black jeans that had a decorative green trim at the ankles. And as to be expected, she wore a pair of comfortable black sandals on her feet rather than sneakers or boots.

Loki studied his daughter over and over again, his heart swelling with pride. Not only due to her beauty but because he could sense something within his child. She was heavily saturated with magic… even though her powers had been suppressed for her whole life clearly that had not had any effect on their development. And even though Dagny had never used this magic, Loki could feel it radiating off of her body in waves. It was pleasant and calming… the feeling of magic in its rawest and purest state. So after looking her over one last time he released the summoning spell; it was time that he and his stolen child finally met… The second that the spell was released Dagny staggered backwards a bit clutching her head and groaning. After a second of regaining herself she looked around trying to figure out where the hell she was and how the hell she managed to get there when her last conscious memory was of her blacking out while walking towards the tower…

"W-Where…? Where the hell am I?" Although the second she took notice of the tall gaunt stranger standing before her, her guard instantly went up. "Who are you?!"

"You need not worry Dagny; you are safe." Loki said warmly, although he only succeeded in startling the young woman all the more. Not to mention that the second that she locked her eyes with this man, a chill ran up her spine… not because she detected any type of ill-intentions… but because of the deep, loving affection that she saw burning behind his green gemstone eyes. It was unnerving because Dagny was quite sure that she had never met this man before.

"How do you know my name?" She demanded. "And how the hell did I get here?!"

"Yes, I am sure that you have questions and I will answer them all…" Loki said in the same warm calm voice as before; at the same time he also began weaving a spell of calming to help relax his obviously nervous daughter. Unfortunately for him he could feel just how riled Dagny was and since he was not only weak at the moment but being as subtle as he could with the calming spell he doubted that it was really going to help much. "To begin, you are currently in a warehouse somewhere near the harbor although past that even I am unsure. Unfortunately I am not yet familiar with the layout of this city. As for how you got here… I summoned you. A simple spell, there will be no adverse side effects I can assure you of that."

"Spell? Summoning?" Dagny looked at this stranger like he was mad. However the gears in her mind were reeling at an insane rate and then the realization smacked into her with the force of a freight train. The breath caught in her throat and she took a step back as her eyes widened in a mix of both shock and fear. "You… your Thor's brother, Loki aren't you?"

In spite of the fact that his own child was referring to him as Thor's brother made his blood boil in rage, Loki forced a smile and nodded. Although it quickly faded when he noticed the sheer amount of fear and distrust that was quickly building behind her eyes.

"You need not fear me." He tried to say in a soothing manner, while he had no choice but to give up on the calming spell. It was clearly not helping much anyway. "I mean you no harm."

"Yeah, like I believe that..." Dagny hissed coldly, mentally cursing herself for it having to be now of all times that she accidentally left her taser back home. "You're probably thinking that you could use me and Rhea to get to my father. Not gonna-" It was at that precise second that it hit her with the force of a sledgehammer…

_Rhea was not with her…_

_In fact she was nowhere in sight…_

Loki was suddenly very confused at the sudden wave of panic that flooded into Dagny's features. "Who is this Rhea?" Of course by speaking he only managed to return Dagnys attention to him and the panic suddenly evolved into rage and she grabbed him roughly by the front of his armor.

"What did you do with her?!" She snarled her green eyes blazing with wrath. "What did you do with my daughter?!"

"Daughter?" Loki's eyes went wide in horror. "You are far too young to have a child of your own! You're only twenty-three on this very day!" Dagny stared at him disbelievingly when he said this. Her anger having lost its grip for a mere second.

"How do you know that?" She whispered, but her anger then flared back up. "How do you fucking know that?!"

"Because twenty-three years ago I gave birth to you... that is how I know."

_It took a second for what he said to register…_

_And that was when a wave of fresh horror washed over Dagny…_

"You were stolen from my arms…" He continued watching this new information slowly register within his daughter's mind. He very gently placed his hands over hers which were gripping his armor so tightly that her knuckles were white; and using what power he had previously been channeling into a calming spell...

_He began loosening his mother's magic suppressing spell…_

"And for twenty-three years you have been here on Midgard whilst I have been imprisoned. But no more... I have only returned to this realm for but one reason, to get you Dagny." It was then at these words Dagny snapped back to reality and tore herself free from his grip and took a few steps backwards before actually falling backwards onto her rear. Naturally Loki went to help her up…

"Don't you dare touch me!" Dagny snapped as she staggered to her feet. "I don't believe you, I don't believe one word out of your mouth! You're a murderer and a liar and… oh fuck this I don't have time to deal with you; I have to find my daughter!" She raged; turning her back to the Trickster god and started heading towards the main door to the warehouse.

"Please!" Loki pleaded as he quickly managed to grab Dagny's arm as she went to run. "You do not know how long I have waited! You fear for your daughter? Then you try to comprehend what I have had to endure for these past twenty-three years!" Dagny turned around to face him; only her eyes were literally glowing with an unnatural light.

"I am _**NOT**_ your daughter!" She roared at him. It was at that moment that she brought her free arm back and with all the strength she had she slashed him across the face, literally raking her nails deep into his skin leaving five bloody scratch marks across the entire side of his face. This caused Loki to release her and cry out in pain and surprise. "I am Dagny Stark! I may not know what kind of sick game you're trying to play, but I'm not stupid! Common Sense 101 screams never listen to someone who is known for being the God of Lies!" And with that final word Dagny turned and ran as fast as she possibly could out of the warehouse.

_However, in her great hurry to get away from Loki…_

_Dagny failed to realize that on the hand which she had struck Loki with, each of the now bloody nails were now about an inch long and as sharp as a razorblade…_

But back inside Loki was currently feeling as though someone had stabbed him straight through his heart. **(Albeit the pain in his face was still pretty bad too…) **The fact that his child clearly viewed him as a monster brought about a pain that was every bit as bad as the day when she was stolen from him. After all this time... he realized just how foolish he had been. Did he really think that he could just appear in front of Dagny after all these years, tell her the truth about her heritage and she would automatically accept him as her parent and he could take her with him; traveling all through the nine realms? No… no that was a foolish thought. All these years he had clung to a dream that was truly nothing more than a fairy tale. And Loki above everybody else knew that fairy tale endings never really happed…

_There was no such thing as a happy ending… _

Especially not for him. One would think that he would have learned that by now. But just as he was about to give in to his seemingly never-ending sorrow something that Dagny had mentioned suddenly registered within his mind…

"Stark?" He muttered quietly to himself and then all at once the realization dawned on him and a portion of his all-consuming hatred suddenly began to bubble to the surface. "Thor gave my child to the Man of Iron?!" he screamed, completely outraged. What was even worse was that everything now made sense; of course Thor would do something like this and of course those wretched mortals would deliberately turn his daughter against him! The more he thought about it his grief began to twist itself into madness and then finally into rage. A rage that burned with such fire that it seemed to fill him with strength and replenish his magic… which he began to use to heal the deep cuts in his face.

_While his vision turned red as he began imagining how he was going to reap his revenge… _

* * *

It didn't take long at all before the Avengers made it to the outside of the old dilapidated church where the supposed image of Loki had been captured by the random person's cellphone some time earlier. Clearly the god of Mischief's taste in hideouts had greatly diminished in recent years as this particular building looked even more run down up close than it did in its photo. Naturally Steve wanted to take a second and plan out what they were going to do once they got inside… only Tony wasn't cooperating at all. Hell, he wasn't even listening to a word that anyone was saying. So since he was currently decked out in his latest suit, he just set his sights on the front doors and none to gracefully blasted them right off their hinges!

Of course the sight within the old church was far from what anybody had expected. Whereas they all had their weapons at the ready and had expected a fight to happen almost immediately… What was actually there was _'Loki'_ sitting at the head of a large table apparently finishing off the last bites of what was presumably a large cake. The second that the doors were rather abruptly blown in, the man went quite still. He even kept the fork in his mouth for a second whilst he stared at these uninvited guests.

"Where the hell is Dagny?!" Stark demanded as he proceeded to blast the table away from the young man and then grabbed him up by the front of his suit. "Where is she Loki?!" The stranger remained quiet for a moment and blinked his large, green slitted eyes only once…

_Before he threw his head back and laughed in a sickeningly psychotic way…_

"Dagny? Sorry, but there is no Dagny here!" The second that this man opened his mouth it was clear that he was not Loki. His voice was different, as was his entire demeanor… Upon this fact suddenly becoming obvious Natasha gave Thor a quick and hard smack.

"You said it was him!"

"I-I could have sworn it was!" Thor stuttered. And even though this individual was definitely not Loki, the similarities were striking.

"Erm, uh… sorry about this. We thought you were somebody else." Stark muttered releasing his grip on the young man. Of course this stranger just kept right on laughing as he took a few steps backwards, so that he could better see everyone who had just burst in on his little private celebration.

"It's fine. Everyone makes mistakes; thankfully I finished eating the cake before you barged in and destroyed my table." And it was at this that the man smiled…

_Exposing a mouth full of razor sharp teeth…_

_And his serpentine tongue slid out for a quick second..._

"But, the name you said is one that I am very familiar with!" He cackled in the same mad tone. "I have been told that I bare a strong resemblance to this Loki. But that aside I am very pleased to make the acquaintance of all the Avengers! I knew that our meeting would eventually happen, but I never once expected it to happen on my birthday! Tell me, is it solely that you mistook me for Loki that you're here or did somebody find that dead body out back?" It was at this point that everybody was staring, because whoever this individual was, he was making everybody **very** uncomfortable especially with him revealing that there was body outside.

"Excuse me?" Steve asked, some part of him honestly not believing how casual this man was about an apparent dead body. The man chuckled while he began twirling his silver flute in a nonchalant manner.

"I didn't mean to kill him; honestly I just slapped him. How was I supposed to know his neck would break so easily?" And with that Natasha pulled her gun out and pointed it straight at his head. Something that made the young man laugh yet again.

"Just who are you?" Bruce asked coldly. Whoever this guy was, he was making him more and more **irritated** by the second. Quite frankly Banner wasn't quite sure how long he could remain calm at this rate.

"Oh… did I forget to mention that? My apologies… I am uncertain." He announced, but judging by the looks he was getting from his guests he was going to have to elaborate. "Calder." He stated. "My name is uncertain, Calder means uncertain in Norse. I am uncertain, I am Calder."

"Alright then Calder, please keep your hands where I can see them while we call the cops to come and arrest your crazy ass." Tony grumbled darkly. "Let's make this quick people; we have more important things to do than deal with this lunatic." Although these words clearly aggravated him… Calder restrained his anger and forced a smile.

"Got to go find Loki? When you do find him, could you please bring him back here so I can personally thank him for all my misery?" he asked with a distinctly malevolent tone in his voice. "We could even throw a party! I'll make the party streamers out of his guts and the punch from his blood! Doesn't that sound like fun?"

"Stop speaking in such a way!" Thor growled angrily at Calder. "Loki is my brother and **we** shall apprehend him! If you so much as touch him I will crush your skull into the ground!" It was with these words that Calder grew quiet; only now his eyes were completely focused on Thor… shining brightly with an unnatural energy. He abruptly stopped twirling his flute just as the runes that adorned the beautiful instrument began to glow red.

"Thank you for volunteering... **_uncle_**…" He said in a voice that was just dripping with venom and malice. And before anyone could completely register what Calder had just said, the man locked his acid green eyes on Thor, put his flute to his lips and began to play…

_There was only one way to describe Calder's music…_

_Evil…_

_And the second that this evil music began, Calder's green eyes turned a hellish red…_

Thor suddenly dropped Mjolnir to the ground and he began to scream whilst he gripped his head; as a wave of sudden searing pain washed over him with the force of a tsunami! Although everyone was startled by this, Barton still managed to be the first one to react and he fired an arrow straight through Calder's right shoulder. But much to his surprise and horror this didn't get _any_ response whatsoever... But he did stop playing a few seconds later and even in spite of having an arrow piercing clean through his shoulder he still managed to smile like the madman he was continually revealing himself to be. Thor however stopped screaming at the same time that Calder ceased playing his flute… although he had gone oddly silent. In a single swift movement Mjolnir returned to his hand…

_And he swung it straight into Clint…_

The archer flew across the room and crashed into the wall! By some twist of fate he survived, but he could instantaneously tell that his ribs were shattered… Thor now stood as still as a statue, revealing that his eyes were now glowing every bit as red as Calder's! In fact that maniac outstretched his left arm and what looked like long, thick, tendrils burst from his fingers and rooted into the back of his neck, his arms and legs. Only after a second glance it was revealed that the tendrils weren't tendrils, it was long rusted barbed wire…

"It's time for this world to pay the piper!" Calder chuckled wickedly as he flexed his fingers and flexed the barbed-wire puppet strings that now protruded from his fingertips.

"_So then… shall we really get this party started?"_

_**Ok yeah, I know how long it has been since I updated. I am truly very sorry about the wait but in my defense I have been extremely busy preparing for my college finals. Now that said finals are over with and I'm free for the summer the updates should come much quicker now. I do apologize if this chapter did seemed to end a bit abruptly but I really just wanted to get it done and posted… As always I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and please do not forget to Read and Review! ^_^**_


	5. The Queen of the Dead

**Chapter 4**

**The Queen of the Dead**

_It was actually quite funny how quick this little mix up spiraled out of control and then ultimately went straight to hell... _

Although in all honesty it really wasn't funny at all... although this insane stranger, Calder, kept right on laughing like everything that was taking place was the funniest damn thing he had ever seen! Even the fact that he had and arrow quite literally piercing through his right shoulder and coming out his back didn't seem to dampen his mood whatsoever. This madman, and that truly was the best word within the English language to properly describe him; locked his glowing red eyes on the remaining Avengers and after a moment or so the color flickered before returning to the usual green.

"This..." He said coyly. "is going to be a fun warm-up. I've only heard the stories about my uncle's strength; it sure is going to be _fun_ making him fight with you."

Steve growled menacingly. "Thor has never mentioned knowing anyone named Calder before! Let alone having a nephew!" It was as soon as these words left his mouth that Calder actually stopped smiling and his features became colder... angrier.

"Of course he doesn't know me; I was thrown away like trash when I was born." His forked tongue quickly slipped out of his mouth as he growled a bit and tested out the puppet-strings he had attached to Thor, which caused the Thunderer to shift his position slightly. "Strange as it sounds Loki is my _'mother'_ in spite of being a man. I don't get that... it makes about as much sense to me as a _'hacksaw'_ does. I've used that thing before and it doesn't hack, it just saws... I don't get it... not at all..."

Having clearly heard far more than he ever wanted, Tony charged a repulsor blast and fired it straight at Calder. However the young man moved quickly and pulled Thor right into the blasts path, forcing him to take all of the damage. Not that it actually injured him much, this was _Thor_ after all; but still the fact that he was going to be forced to fight one of his friends put a disgusting taste in Tony's mouth. The young man's smile quickly returned to his face and he seemed to effortlessly jump about six feet backwards. The barbed wired that was protruding from his fingertips immediately elongating as he did so. He cracked his neck loudly and then rather abruptly stopped smiling...

_Thus the game begins... _

Calder revealed that he was able to control his new Thor-puppet with a minimum amount of movements and without having to actually watch what was doing... he was also capable of making the Thunder god move unnaturally quick. As was evident when he made Thor attack Stark, nearly succeeding in taking the billionaires head off with Mjolnir. Fortunately though Tony dodged and then began fighting back; after all he was aware that Thor was more capable than virtually anyone else of taking hits... well almost anyone that is... A sudden ear-splitting roar signaled that Banner had just Hulked out and he then took over dealing with the mind-controlled Thor. Leaving the rest of his teammates free to target the ringmaster of this whole mess. However, this sudden development made Calder growl in frustration, having not planned on the Hulk making an appearance. Although he should have, since the green beast was a member of this team after all...

_Wait... plan? What plan?_

Aside from his main objective, he didn't actually have any plan here. The only reason he was attacking the Avengers now was because... was because... he paused, trying to grasp at the reason why he had thought fighting them now was a good idea. Calder was fully aware that he was going to be unable to win; but the more he tried to think about it, the less of a reason there seemed to be. For him confusion was a common ailment, as his mind worked differently from others; it was cunning but slow... _defective_... And all of these thoughts were giving him a headache as he tried to think deeper into them. There was no logic at this point, he had started this and even if it was no longer going the way he wanted he might as well finish it. After all it was not like anyone, not even this team of so-called superheroes, would be able to stop him... this would be just have to be for fun.

Although while Calder had been distracted by his thoughts he had failed to notice that Natasha had shot ten rounds into his chest and Steve had gotten close enough to smash his fist into his face. He flew backwards and bounced twice on the ground before slamming into the cold stone wall. His bones could be heard shattering upon impact; not to mention that his left arm had three shards of bones literally protruding out through his suit causing spots of crimson red blood to begin appearing in those areas of the fabric as well as in the places he had been shot. This didn't appear to have any effect on his control over Thor who didn't miss a step and had just continued equal parts fighting and being thrashed by the Hulk. Afterwards Calder just blinked twice, still seeming to be mostly unaware of the vastness of his injuries. But when he coughed it caused a wave of crimson blood to erupt out of his mouth and dribble down his front... this made him look down at his mangled body in a confused sort of way... but still, he just returned to smiling that creepy insane smile of his... And after a second or so he managed to stagger to his feet, his damaged bones cracking loudly as he did so.

It was then that he spread his arms wide whilst his body seemed to begin vibrating. A sickening sound was heard just as his torso literally began splitting itself apart! Ripping his suit to ribbons; all of a sudden the bones in his left arm tore themselves out of the skin and muscle, revealing that the barbed wire was tightly embedded around the bones and still protruded from the fingertips. The mass of flesh that had once been the muscle and tissue of that arm then became animated, not like another arm per se but more like a writhing tentacle of sorts... The flesh on his chest and back was next to go, ripping itself right off with a great gush of blood exposing the internal organs and showing the damage that Natasha's bullets had actually done... as well as the fact that there was even more barbed wire nestled in there amongst all of his innards. This second flesh mass then swung around and with the barbed wire attached itself to his lower back, animating and moving like an animal's tail would. And then there was the final disgusting ripping sound as Calder's mouth began opening abnormally wide, ripping a Glasgow smile deep into his face as more and more pointed teeth began to fill his enlarging mouth.

_By the time he finished mutating Calder looked like a demon belched straight out of the deepest bowels of hell..._

"What the hell... is he?" Natasha asked nothing short of horrified at what she had just witnessed. Right along with everyone else who'd been unfortunate enough to see this disturbing sight. Although Calder had one last trick up his sleeve as the silver flute he still clenched tightly in his right hand emitted an eerie red glow before a sharp menacing blade suddenly protruded from one end of it. This blade was similar to that of a katana and just like the flute it was now a part of, it had various runes etched into it. As he turned the blade ever so slightly, the light that reflected off the blade held a malicious red gleam.

Calder then lunged for Steve, his sword cutting through the air so quickly that it was hard to track with the naked eye. But thankfully Captain America was faster in bringing his shield up to deflect the blows, although he could feel the tremendous force that was put behind each strike... while he may have some impressive physical strength but Calder clearly did not have any real talent with it. As he continued wildly lashing out with that blade it became oddly clear that he didn't have any practiced form or training; he was swinging that sword in a clumsy and uncontrolled manner. But in spite of this he still managed to keep Steve on the defensive and mostly prevent him from fighting back.

With Calder distracted Stark came up from behind and slammed his fist as hard as he possibly could into the skeletal left arm intending to sever it off entirely and break Calder's hold on Thor; the bone instantly splintered like a brittle stick and Stark grabbed it and proceeded to snap it off the rest of the way. But his efforts were in vain as even though Calder's arm was now severed, the barbed wire was not... in fact that cursed wire suddenly began wrapping itself around Tony seemingly on its own accord as Calder was still primarily focused on Steve and was either unaware or completely ignoring what Stark had done. Tony then found out the hard way that he was unable to cut through any of the wire that was now starting to worm its way _**inside**_ of his armor! He could feel it starting to rip its way in as sections of the razor sharp metal would manage to tear through parts of his clothing and cut his skin open with only the faintest of touches... every little cut no matter how small would immediately begin to burn, as though someone had just rubbed a rusted needle straight into the open wounds quickly making the pain excruciatingly bad.

Three arrows then imbedded themselves in Calder's back as Barton had finally managed to regain himself and choke back the near-blinding pain of his shattered ribs. But like everything else that had been tried thus far, these arrows didn't even seem to catch their targets attention...

_At least until they exploded..._

It looked as though this fight was finally finished; of course it would have been quite difficult for it to continue on anymore since Calder's body had been literally blown to pieces! To further indicate that it was over, Thor had rather abruptly stopped fighting with Hulk... although he did receive one final punch from his considerably larger, more brutal opponent which sent him flying straight into the wall. He slid down with a loud groan, slowly regaining himself and his mind. Then a moment later the Thunderer growled hatefully before ripping himself free of the now motionless and powerless barbed wire.

"Well... that went well." Stark grumbled coldly as he began pulling out the long strands of the wire out of his armor. "At least this little nightmare is over and we can get back to dealing with more important-"

"You are truly blind if you believe that this is anywhere near over..." A new voice said in a deathly calm manner causing everyone to whirl around and face the general direction that this said voice had come from. But virtually no one was prepared for what it was that they were about to see... As it was a young woman that could for half a second passed off as Dagny... but only for half a second, because anyone looking for longer than that would realize that this was _**clearly**_ not Dagny...

_Dagny was not half rotten..._

This woman stood at a towering height anywhere between six and a half to seven feet tall. Her skin was a sickening white color, as though it was already long dead and just plastered onto her body. As was mentioned before she was half rotten, the entire left side of her body was nothing but bone and some scattered pieces of long dead tissue. Her right eye was a cold emerald green while her left eye was nothing more than a red orb suspended in a boney eye socket. Her long black hair was only present on the right side of her head and only a few thin wispy strands still managed to cling to the left side of her skull... She wore heavy battle armor, which was black as night and trimmed in silver and extremely ornate in design. Around her neck hung a skull medallion of some sorts on a silver chain and upon her back was a massive double bladed axe that was adorned with a glowing skull in its hilt.

Thor gapped like a fish as he stared at this newcomer, as he knew this particular individual... even though he could not imagine what reason there could possibly be for her being here now. "Hel?" he asked dumbly even though he knew it was her... she did after all have a very unique appearance.

"I am glad you recognize me uncle; I am also glad to see you have not been torn asunder by Calder's spell." Hel said in the same cold, dead tone that she spoke with before.

"You know her?" Steve inquired and Thor nodded as he swallowed uncomfortably.

"She is Loki's daughter Hel, the goddess of the dead." Thor explained as calmly as he could manage as he found himself growing more and more uneasy by the second. "But... dear niece, why are you here? I believed that you never left your realm." The half dead woman was as silent as a gravestone for what seemed like an eternity before she focused her eyes on what remained of Calder's head and if it was possible her look grew colder as she started to slowly walk towards it.

"I am here because of him, because of the trouble he has caused me." At this she reached down and seized the head and brought it up to her eye level, revealing that the badly burned head was still mostly attached to the spinal column and varying amounts of tissue that just proceeded to dangle loosely off of the bones. "Enough of this you mad little worm, relinquish what is of my realm this instant!" She snapped angrily at the severed head in her hand... and before Stark could say a single snarky comment to how she was talking to a disembodied head... the damn thing blinked and spoke.

"No... they got what they deserved." The head growled angrily at the Queen of the Dead. **(Successfully scaring the crap out of Stark at the same time...)** "I'm not giving you anything."

"You will give me those souls this instant or else I shall rip them from you!" Hel snarled, her voice taking on a truly demonic tone. At this Calder suddenly resumed smiling as best he could through his decimated features.

"We both know that you can't do that, 'cause I'm not dead. You can't make me do anything!" he stopped smiling then as a creeping sorrow painted itself on what little remained of his face. "I wanted your help half-sister but you didn't give me any help at all... But now I have something to do. I have a wish to grant."

"Do you not see what damage you are doing?! Your actions are wicked! If you continue with this plan of yours you will bring about nothing but pain! Unless that is the wish you want to grant?!" Calder suddenly emitted a horrible screeching howl that felt as though it could freeze blood in the veins.

"I don't care what you say! I'm not going to stop just because you try to confuse me! You don't understand... no one ever could! I have to grant that wish! And I don't care who stands in my way I will not stop until I make it come true! I'll kill anyone who gets in my path, that includes you half-sister! So stay out of my way!"

It was at that that something started to come out of that severed head, it looked like some sort of thick black and red smoke that just started billowing out faster and faster. In a few seconds there was so much of this smoke that it nearly filled half of the old church... but that was when it started to compact itself, form something else that was still as ethereal as the smoke but it was no longer just that...

_It had formed the snarling head of some kind of hellish wolf..._

Black in color with red eyes and partially transparent yet it still held amazingly exact details. Whatever this was exactly no one got a chance to think about it as this spectral creature unleashed a howl so loud that the ground seemed to shake. It quickly clamped its mouth around the discarded silver flute/sword which had been embedded into the wall by the explosion and then it turned and seemed to bolt towards one of the few remaining stained glass windows and it then just seemed to phase out through the glass, like a ghost... disappearing outside.

"And thus it continues..." Hel whispered coldly turning her back on the Avengers and going to leave.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa there Miss Zombie," Stark yelled stopping the Queen of Niflheim in her tracks. "Just what the hell was all of that about? Since you seem to be so familiar with that little psychopath that just tried his hardest to kill us, how about you enlighten the rest of us to WHAT THE HELL IT WAS ALL ABOUT?!" Tony raged starting to feel the stress of the entire situation bearing down on his shoulders. But even moreso than that was his worry about Dagny and Rhea that had him currently screaming in the face of the death goddess.

Hel could not help but chuckle slightly at this mortal. "So you are the Man of Iron I have heard so much about..." she commented dryly, her voice only getting the very faintest of traces of emotion as she spoke. "You're also the surrogate my little sister has been entrusted too."

"You are aware of that?" Thor questioned.

"I am aware of far more than many give me credit for uncle..." Hel then became silent for several long minutes before refocusing her attention on Stark and continuing. "You wish to know about Calder? Very well... Calder is the twin brother of Dagny, he was born from our mother's womb mere minutes before she was. Only he was taken away by the Allfather and damned to a wretched existence... to be neither alive nor dead. His soul has been cast out from his still-living flesh... now this lost soul haunts the nine realms..."

"Ma'am I punched him and he didn't feel like a ghost. He felt very much alive." Steve injected suddenly a little bit confused.

"Yes... he can possess individuals and take complete control of their bodies. It must pain you all to realize that when you destroyed Calder's body you killed an innocent. Just one of his unfortunate victims." The shock of this revelation blew through the Avengers minds like one of Clint's exploding arrows. It brought with it waves of guilt and shame, but it would all have to be buried for now as there were other matters that needed to be handled now... they would deal with their shame later. "You may have already realized that Calder is also quite damaged... his mind is permanently like that of a child. This was brought about by an injury he received when he was being birthed... electrocution I believe it was... now his mind is stunted, damaged. How well his brain functions entirely... I cannot tell." Hel then turned her back to the Avengers once again.

"I must take my leave now. But before I go I will inform you of one thing... my younger sister has just returned to the Man of Iron's tower at this very instant. You best hurry back there, she is rather distraught."

"How do you know that?" asked Clint... Hel didn't bother to answer him, she just walked into the dark shadows of the room and quietly disappeared... leaving it almost like she had never been there in the first place.

_And nobody said a single word after that..._

**Yes I am aware this chapter is a bit shorter than some of my others but here is my reasoning for this, shorter chapters allow me to update quicker and I did want to get this chapter done because I am going on vacation for a week and I will not be doing any writing during that time... **

**However if my readers prefer longer chapters that take a little longer to get posted please let me know and I will return to doing that. I will admit to the fact that the more reviews I get the quicker I will update...**

**And as always please remember to read and review! **


	6. Rage and Revelations

**Chapter 5**

**Rage and Revelations**

_Hel was right; by the time that the Avengers returned to Stark Tower Dagny was already there..._

Although she was by no means in good condition; apparently when she had first arrived she was in a frantic state and completely hysterical! Although the main reason for this was blatantly obvious, as while Dagny was now safe and sound at the tower... there was no trace of little Rhea. When Tony and the others had finally returned they were greeted by Dmitri, who proceeded to give them the quick run-through of the situation. **(AKA Dagny showing up without Rhea after having blacked out due to something she was currently refusing to talk about... and she was having a fit because she did not have the faintest idea where her daughter was.) **No sooner did the words leave the boys mouth did Tony rush inside and embrace his daughter in a tight hug, not giving a single thought to the fact that he was still clad in his battle damaged suit since in his hurry he had bypassed the machinery that removes it... at the time Dagny had been pacing the room; all of the worry could be seen on her face the second that anyone laid their eyes upon her. And poor Pepper had been trying in vain to calm her down, but unfortunately all she had succeeded in doing was making her even more riled.

The second that Tony had touched Dagny however, she had jumped and brought her fist up as though she was ready to lash out and punch him. Thankfully though she managed to stop her fist mere centimeters from Starks face. "D-Dad?" She asked weakly, since she was so distraught that she was actually trembling. "D-D-Dad it's Rhea! She's gone! I-I don't where s-she is!"

"I know, I know... Dmitri told us." Tony said in the calmest voice he could manage. While this was undoubtedly a far cry from his usual demeanor, over the years he had managed to force himself to be serious, especially where his kids were concerned... well, at least for a few moments anyway. "Don't you worry your pretty little head though, we'll find her. Even if I have to personally take this city apart piece by piece." Even though this was meant in a borderline joking way clearly like everything else that had been said before, it had not made Dagny feel any better. In fact Tony suddenly felt her tense up and rather abruptly jerk out of his grasp, something that was definitely not normal for her. Stark didn't need to turn around in order to know that his fellow Avengers were exchanging uneasy glances with each other, nor did they need to speak aloud what they all were assuming might have happened… he just sent an uneasy glance to Pepper, who then proceeded to place a comforting hand on Dagny's back and finally managed to get the frantic young woman to sit down on the couch. Of course, as the uncomfortable silence steadily began to fill the room… **(With the only exception being Tony instructing Jarvis to use any means necessary to start searching for Rhea)** it became obvious that no one really wanted to be the one who asked the question that absolutely had to be asked. But after another second or so Natasha sighed and took the unpleasant responsibility onto her own shoulders.

"Dagny… what exactly happened earlier?" She asked quietly, trying hard to phrase the question in as gentle a manner as possible. Not that it did much good as Dagny tensed up, but remained silent… although she began wringing her hands in an uncomfortable and nervous manner.

"Sweetheart, please… tell us." Pepper gently pushed as well, she knew… no… she couldn't begin to fathom what kind of storm was raging within the depths of Dagny's heart.

Not that Dagny felt like she was able to find the right words to properly describe her train wreck of emotions either. Especially since every fiber of her being was consumed with fear and utter terror as she thought of what possibly could have become of her daughter, as she was far too aware of the kind of people that there were out there... people who would not think twice about hurting an innocent little girl like Rhea... The dread gripped her right down to her very soul. However, in spite of Dagny's overwhelming fear for her child's safety was not the only thing preying on her mind... The events from earlier, meeting Loki the God of Lies and thinking about everything he had said... even though she didn't believe him; his words were lingering in the back of her mind. Still nonetheless… Pepper said her name once more, which managed to pull Dagny out of her mind and back to reality and the question at hand.

"I… Rhea and I stopped at Central Park, only w-when we went to leave I- I blacked out or something because when I came to I was down by the docks and Rhea wasn't with me, but…" She looked up and locked her emerald eyes on Thor and said what everyone had been dreading. "Your psycho brother, Loki, was there! That nutcase must have somehow put me into a trance and made me leave my daughter somewhere in this city!" At this she put her face in her hands and started sobbing hysterically as once more the events of this whole miserable day began to replay over and over in her mind. She became so lost within her thoughts that she couldn't even make out what it was that her father was saying to her or the others.

As mentioned before it was not as though she believed Loki; hell how could she?! He was a liar of _**legendary**_ proportions after all… but there was some things about this whole thing that just weren't making any sense to her. For starters what the hell was the purpose of trying to convince her that he was her fath- erm… mother? But… then again if he had been locked up in Asgard ever since his attempt to take over the world how could he have known that she existed let alone the fact that it had been her birthday on this very day? The more Dagny thought about it the more something felt wrong with this… with everything…

Unintentionally she started thinking back to a time when she was still in High school; how her history teacher had always had a thing for mythology and every now and again he would regale his classes with these fascinating stories. Once in a while Norse myths would get mixed in and since she was interested in the subject and could actually find out what was fact and what was fiction from an actual Norse god Dagny had frequently asked Thor questions. Several of these questions had pertained to Loki and even now she could remember how everyone had always tried so hard to change the subject as quickly as possible. It had struck her as strange, even back then. Although she had later attributed it to problems within Thor's Asgardian family which her father had pointed out there were so many it would take a century to count them all. But now... now she couldn't help but wonder...

_...no..._

_It couldn't be true..._

_...could it? _

"Stark Tower to Dagny, come in Dagny!" It finally registered that her father had been talking to her for several long minutes and she had been completely unresponsive. Now that he had finally managed to recapture her attention he repeated the question he'd only been trying to ask about four times. "What happened? You know… between you and Reindeer games? He didn't try to mess with your head or anything did he?" Judging by the dark looks that he received from Pepper and the others he probably could have phrased that better… especially since everyone was well aware of how they had been lying to Dagny all of her life about the very thing Loki more than likely tried to convince her of.

"He didn't hurt me… but… he said some strange things." She explained calmly. Although Dagny inwardly couldn't help but find it an unnerving coincidence that that would be the first thing her dad would ask about. "I know he's supposed to be the fucking God of Lies but I think he's got more than a few screws loose if the first thing he does once he escapes from prison is try to convince me that I'm _his_ daughter."

"More than likely he wanted to try and use you against your father." Natasha injected quickly, as she undoubtedly had quite a bit of skill when it came to deceit and she figured it best be her to be the one to lie to Dagny at this time. However it was unfortunate for her that this lie failed to silence the growing doubts in Dagnys mind. Her expression underwent a dark change… as all the emotion of worry, fear and anger seemed to drain out of her face until the point that she looked as though she was nothing more than a soulless doll… and her emerald green eyes suddenly seemed to become as cold and unfeeling as winters ice. It was a look that sent shivers down Tony's spine as she locked those now unblinking eyes upon him…

"Dad…" She said in a voice that was every bit as dark as her features now were. "I… as crazy as it is, I need some reassurance; Loki was lying to me… right?" The words sounded hollow to Dagny's own ears as some part of her could barely believe that they had even come out of her mouth. But perhaps… the real reason she had these doubts now was because she'd had them before. There were times when she had been growing up that she'd wondered if she had been adopted. Although whenever these thoughts crossed through her mind she would simply shrug them off; thinking it was nonsense… after all wasn't every kid a little bit afraid that they might have been adopted at some point or another? Or at least that was what she had told herself. But… no matter how much she tried to convince herself of this, the thought did not leave. It remained buried deep within her heart, occasionally rearing its ugly head in the form of venom coated words…

'_Why is there no resemblance between you and your father? He says you take after your mother, but shouldn't you see at least a few of his traits within yourself?'_

'_Why were you given the name Dagny? It is an Old Norse name and is barely used at all nowadays. It's definitely not the kind of name your father would pick out and he was the one who gave you your name...so… why?'_

'_Why are there times when you feel as if you don't belong? Why do sometimes feel like you are the odd one out? You feel it… you look at your family and even though you love them and know how much they love you, you can't help but feel that you're a bit different from them…'_

'_Why does Rhea tearfully claim that she feels different from all the other children? Why does she cry because for some unknown reason nobody wants to be her friend?'_

These were only some of the thoughts that crossed Dagny's mind over the years; thoughts that were so private that Dagny herself barely acknowledged their presence. But now with her finally asking Tony this question that was burning inside of her like a frozen flame, making her insides feel chilled and seeming to freeze the blood within her veins… she hoped that when he told her it was all in her head she'd feel relief from this cold that seemed to have suddenly gripped her insides…

_But she doubted it…_

_Maybe because in the grand scheme of things, Dagny was afraid that she already knew the answer..._

The question had caught Stark off guard and his face showed it. Now Tony may have the ability to look someone in the eye and lie to them… hell every now and again he did so to his fellow Avengers, more specifically Steve… namely whenever he'd ask if Tony knew where some of his old records from the forties had gotten too… **(When in reality Stark had destroyed them...)** But this was different, this was one of his worst nightmares coming true…

"You're my daughter Dagny, never doubt that." Just the way he said that, the lack of emotion in his voice surprised even him. Of course the looks of horror and disbelief from everybody else were almost funny…

"Tony-?!" Pepper began only to be cut off as Dagny abruptly stood up, her eyes suddenly as wide as an owls.

"By blood? Am I your daughter by _**blood**_?!" She demanded as the uncomfortable freezing feeling in her chest began to increase and a chill ran up her spine as she suddenly knew where this conversation was heading… but it would be whatever words her father was about to say that would determine whether or not this already bad day got a whole lot worse.

"Dagny it's… well it's a bit complicated." Pepper started before Tony could open his big mouth again, trying to hopefully steer this conversation away from the treacherous waters it was now entering… unfortunately this was not the kind of situation that once touched upon could be dropped. And somewhere deep in Tony's heart he always knew that someday Dagny would learn the truth… granted he had originally hoped that it wouldn't be until she was over a hundred and fifty years old and wondering how she was not only still alive, but looked like she was barely out of her twenties... by then Tony would be long dead and the unpleasant job of telling Dagny of her true heritage would fall to Thor. But now this was no longer an option… and even though he knew Fury would personally try to strangle him later; it was time to tell his daughter the truth.

_She would be his daughter always…_

_By blood or not…_

"Tony I don't know if-" Banner started to speak but was promptly interrupted by Tony spilling his guts.

"It's true Dagny; you are Loki's biological daughter. But it doesn't mean anything, you are my daught-" In spite of what Tony was trying to say it wasn't enough, as the second that these words left his mouth Dagny all but exploded.

"No… so all these years you _**lied**_ to me?!" She snarled, unaware of the fact that her green eyes suddenly lit with an unknown energy and began to glow with a blazing and hellish ferocity that startled everyone.

"Only to protect you." Stark continued and he went to place a hand on Dagny's shoulder, only he had to pull his hand back quickly as no sooner did his fingers get an inch from Dagny did a horrible burning, freezing pain rip through his hand. It was at this moment that everyone began to notice that the air in the room was starting to become bone-chillingly cold. Dagny was the only one who was oblivious to this fact due to her rage, she was also unaware of the fact that there appeared to be some sort of smoke vapors radiating off of her body.

"Protect me from what?! Why not just tell me all of this from the start?! No… I have a feeling that I was the last person anyone thought about when you were all plotting this shit!" Dagny felt her blood freezing solid in her veins. The cold welling inside of her was reaching its breaking point, if she didn't find a way to release it she felt as though she might very well have icicles explode out of her body! Without really giving it much conscious thought Dagny extended her left arm towards the broad window that looked out at the city…

_No one expected what came next…_

The smoke vapors coming off of Dagny's body suddenly evolved into blue and white burning flames and in a second they raced down her outstretched arm and exploded outwards with such force that the glass window immediately burst into a million pieces. Only this fire wasn't actually fire at all… everything that the _'flames'_ touched froze solid. All of the millions of glass shards that came from the destroyed window were instantly trapped in a thick ice shard that stuck out over seventy feet from the balcony. Hell in some places the flames themselves had solidified on the floor and the walls a fair distance away from the blast Dagny had just loosed… In spite of her emotional state at this point even Dagny was shocked at what she had just done.

"D-Dagny?" The voice of Saffron caught the attention of everyone in the room, looking in that direction there was the other kids; Saffron, Ryan, Eve and Annabelle as well as Jane who had been keeping the kids out of the way once Dagny had arrived in as frantic of a state as she had... Unfortunately she could only do so much and the kids had now wandered into the room just in time to witness Dagny's explosive outburst. Eve started to cry and clung to her mother's side while the other three children just looked up Dagny with confusion and fear clearly written on their faces. It was seeing those looks on the faces of her younger brother and sister that finally caused something to snap inside of Dagny… With tears starting to well in her eyes Dagny turned around and stormed out. Thor went to say something to his niece but before he could o much as utter a single syllable Dagny cast him a frozen glare…

_It was truly like looking into the eyes of Loki…_

Tony was the one who was about to go after her, only he found his path to be blocked by Banner. "Tony… let her go."

"Are you insane?! She-"

"You saw what she just did. She's stressed out of her mind right now and we're probably the last people on earth she wants to talk to right now. Let her go… let her go look for Rhea in her own way and we'll do what we can from here."

"But-"

_The door suddenly slammed closed before anybody realized that Dmitri had taken off after Dagny. _

* * *

"Dagny! Seriously wait up!" Dmitri called after the figure that was virtually flying down the stairs of the tower. She didn't… however after a few moments he somehow managed to catch up to her and got in her path, forcing her to acknowledge him.

"Get out of the way Dmitri." Dagny growled hotly at him, trying in vain to wipe the tears from her eyes.

"No. I want to help you find Rhea… I figured two heads are better than one, especially after all that mess was revealed and shit." He explained simply. "It really doesn't matter you know… that your adopted or anything, everyone still loves you. You do know that right?" Dagny was silent for a long time, seeming to be lost deep in her thoughts, but then she sighed loudly and rubbed her forehead.

"It's really just everything all at once." She answered honestly. "If everything wasn't crashing down on my shoulders all at once, I wouldn't have reacted the way I did."

"The fire-ice thing that you did was fucking awesome by the way." The teen added with a small smile. "So… should we get started then?"

"No Dmitri, I want you to stay here." She said softly but continued before he could start protesting. "I need you to stay here in case my dad or the others find Rhea before I do. You have my cell number, if they find her I want you to call me. I'd… rather not talk to any of them until I cool off."

Dmitri sighed in annoyance. "Alright, I can do that… I just wish I could help more you know."

"You help out plenty; more than you know… but what you really want is an excuse to use that crossbow that you built and have stashed under your bed." Dmitri chuckled slightly. "I know that what you want, more than anything, is to be just like your dad… that's why you guys have been arguing so much lately…"

"Yeah… well maybe he'll actually start listening to me for once and we won't have to argue." And at that he turned around and started heading back up the stairs. "If we find Rhea I'll call you."

"Thank you Dmitri." Dagny said with a faint smile before she continued on her way outside into the cold night air.

_She could only pray to whatever gods were listening that her daughter, wherever she was, was safe… _

_**To explain the delay with this particular chapter, my computer finally decided to die and its battery burnt out… which put me in the difficult situation of not being able to recovery what I had already written for this chapter… so even though I finally have a new computer I had no choice but to start writing it all over again from scratch, something that was really rather disheartening hence why this chapter may seem a little shorter than the others... Still I finally finished this and unless a meteorite crashes through my roof and hits my computer the next chapter will be up considerably quicker. And as always please remember to Read and Review! As reviews are encouraged sine they inspire me to update quicker! ^_^ **_


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